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An identity column differs from a primary key in that its values are managed by the server and usually cannot be modified. In many cases an identity column is used as a primary key; however, this is not always the case. It is a common misconception that an identity column will enforce uniqueness; however, this is not the case. If you want to ...
Hi/Lo is an algorithm and a key generation strategy used for generating unique keys for use in a database as a primary key. It uses a sequence-based hi-lo pattern to generate values. Hi/Lo is used in scenarios where an application needs its entities to have an identity prior to persistence. It is a value generation strategy.
In the relational model of databases, a primary key is a designated attribute that can reliably identify and distinguish between each individual record in a table.The database creator can choose an existing unique attribute or combination of attributes from the table (a natural key) to act as its primary key, or create a new attribute containing a unique ID that exists solely for this purpose ...
A surrogate key is frequently a sequential number (e.g. a Sybase or SQL Server "identity column", a PostgreSQL or Informix serial, an Oracle or SQL Server SEQUENCE or a column defined with AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL). Some databases provide UUID/GUID as a possible data type for surrogate keys (e.g. PostgreSQL UUID [3] or SQL Server ...
Database designers that use a surrogate key as the primary key for every table will run into the occasional scenario where they need to automatically retrieve the database-generated primary key from an SQL INSERT statement for use in other SQL statements. Most systems do not allow SQL INSERT statements to return row data. Therefore, it becomes ...
Dimension tables often use primary keys that are also surrogate keys. Surrogate keys are often auto-generated (e.g. a Sybase or SQL Server "identity column", a PostgreSQL or Informix serial, an Oracle SEQUENCE or a column defined with AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL). The use of surrogate dimension keys brings several advantages, including: Performance.
AutoNumber is a type of data used in Microsoft Access tables to generate an automatically incremented numeric counter. It may be used to create an identity column which uniquely identifies each record of a table. Only one AutoNumber is allowed in each table. The data type was called Counter in Access 2.0. [1]
A table (called the referencing table) can refer to a column (or a group of columns) in another table (the referenced table) by using a foreign key. The referenced column(s) in the referenced table must be under a unique constraint, such as a primary key. Also, self-references are possible (not fully implemented in MS SQL Server though [5]).