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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. Every relation without NULL values will have at least one candidate key: Since there cannot be duplicate rows, the set of all columns is a superkey, and if that is not minimal, some subset of ...
To conform to 2NF and remove duplicates, every non-candidate-key attribute must depend on the whole candidate key, not just part of it. To normalize this table, make {Title} a (simple) candidate key (the primary key) so that every non-candidate-key attribute depends on the whole candidate key, and remove Price into a separate table so that its ...
In relational database management systems, a unique key is a candidate key. All the candidate keys of a relation can uniquely identify the records of the relation, but only one of them is used as the primary key of the relation. The remaining candidate keys are called unique keys because they can uniquely identify a record in a relation.
A table in a SQL database schema corresponds to a predicate variable; the contents of a table to a relation; key constraints, other constraints, and SQL queries correspond to predicates. However, SQL databases deviate from the relational model in many details , and Codd fiercely argued against deviations that compromise the original principles.
Both 2NF and 3NF are concerned equally with all candidate keys of a table and not just any one key. Chris Date refers to Kent's summary as "an intuitively attractive characterization" of 3NF and notes that with slight adaptation it may serve as a definition of the slightly stronger Boyce–Codd normal form : "Each attribute must represent a ...
For referential integrity to hold in a relational database, any column in a base table that is declared a foreign key can only contain either null values or values from a parent table's primary key or a candidate key. [2] In other words, when a foreign key value is used it must reference a valid, existing primary key in the parent table.
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 ...
A candidate key (or minimal superkey) is a superkey that can't be reduced to a simpler superkey by removing an attribute. [ 3 ] For example, in an employee schema with attributes employeeID , name , job , and departmentID , if employeeID values are unique then employeeID combined with any or all of the other attributes can uniquely identify ...