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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 ...
In these cases, generally a new attribute must be added to the natural key (for example, an original_company column). With a surrogate key, only the table that defines the surrogate key must be changed. With natural keys, all tables (and possibly other, related software) that use the natural key will have to change.
Using a database-specific stored procedure that generates the surrogate key, performs the INSERT operation, and finally returns the generated key. For example, in Microsoft SQL Server, the key is retrieved via the SCOPE_IDENTITY() special function, while in SQLite the function is named last_insert_rowid().
The primary keys within a database are used to define the relationships among the tables. When a PK migrates to another table, it becomes a foreign key (FK) in the other table. When each cell can contain only one value and the PK migrates into a regular entity table, this design pattern can represent either a one-to-one or one-to-many relationship.
PostgreSQL (/ ˌ p oʊ s t ɡ r ɛ s k j u ˈ ɛ l / POHST-gres-kew-EL) [11] [12] also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance.
If a table in 5NF has one primary key column and N attributes, representing the same information in 6NF will require N tables; multi-field updates to a single conceptual record will require updates to multiple tables; and inserts and deletes will similarly require operations across multiple tables.
Therefore, a relation can have multiple candidate keys, each with a different number of attributes. [2] Specific candidate keys are sometimes called primary keys, secondary keys or alternate keys. The columns in a candidate key are called prime attributes, [3] and a column that does not occur in any candidate key is called a non-prime attribute.
One of those keys per table may be designated the primary key; other keys are called alternate keys. Any key may consist of one or more attributes. For example, a Social Security Number might be a single attribute key for an employee; a combination of flight number and date might be a key consisting of two attributes for a scheduled flight.