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Different Types of SQL Keys

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A key is a single or combination of multiple fields in a table. Its is used to fetch or retrieve records/data-rows from data table according to the condition/requirement. Keys are also used to create relationship among different database tables or views.

Types of SQL Keys

We have following types of keys in SQL which are used to fetch records from tables and to make relationship among tables or views.

1. 2.

Super Key Candidate Key

Super key is a set of one or more than one keys that can be used to identify a record uniquely in a table. Example :Primary key, Unique key, Alternate key are subset of Super Keys.

A Candidate Key is a set of one or more fields/columns that can identify a record uniquely in a table. There can be multiple Candidate Keys in one table. Each Candidate Key can work as Primary Key. Example: In below diagram ID, RollNo and EnrollNo are Candidate Keys since all these three fields can be work as Primary Key.

3. 4. 5.

Primary Key Alternate key Composite/Compound Key

Primary key is a set of one or more fields/columns of a table that uniquely identify a record in database table. It can not accept null, duplicate values. Only one Candidate Key can be Primary Key.

A Alternate key is a key that can be work as a primary key. Basically it is a candidate key that currently is not primary key. Example: In below diagram RollNo and EnrollNo becomes Alternate Keys when we define ID as Primary Key.

Composite Key is a combination of more than one fields/columns of a table. It can be a Candidate key, Primary key.

6.

Unique Key
between

Uniquekey is a set of one or more fields/columns of a table that uniquely identify a record in database table. It is like Primary key but it can accept only one null value and it can not have duplicate values. For more help refer the articleDifference

primary key and unique

key.

7.

Foreign Key
between primary key and foreign key.

Foreign Key is a field in database table that is Primary key in another table. It can accept multiple null, duplicate values. For more help refer the article Difference

Example : We can have a DeptID column in the Employee table which is pointing to DeptID column in a department table where it a primary key. Defined Keys -

1. CREATE TABLE Department 2. ( 3. DeptID int PRIMARY KEY, 4. Name varchar (50) NOT NULL, 5. Address varchar (200) NOT NULL, ) 6. CREATE TABLE Student 7. ( 8. ID int PRIMARY KEY, 9. RollNo varchar(10) NOT NULL, 10. Name varchar(50) NOT NULL, 11. EnrollNo varchar(50) UNIQUE, 12. Address varchar(200) NOT NULL, 13. DeptID int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Department(DeptID) 14. )

Note
1. Practically in database, we have only three types of keys Primary Key, Unique Key and Foreign Key. Other types of keys are only concepts of RDBMS that we need to know.

Summary
In this article I try to explain types of keys in Sql Server with example. I hope after reading this article you will be aware of keys in Sql Server. I would like to have feedback from my blog readers. Please post your feedback, question, or comments about this article.

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