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In database design, a composite key is a candidate key that consists of two or more attributes, [1] [2] [3] (table columns) that together uniquely identify an entity occurrence (table row). A compound key is a composite key for which each attribute that makes up the key is a foreign key in its own right.
The surrogate key has no intrinsic (inherent) meaning, but rather is useful through its ability to uniquely identify a tuple. Another common occurrence, especially in regard to N:M cardinality is the composite key. A composite key is a key made up of two or more attributes within a table that (together) uniquely identify a record. [22]
For this example it is assumed that each book has only one author. A table that conforms to the relational model has a primary key which uniquely identifies a row. In our example, the primary key is a composite key of {Title, Format} (indicated by the underlining):
Title Authors ----- ----- SQL Examples and Guide 4 The Joy of SQL 1 An Introduction to SQL 2 Pitfalls of SQL 1 Under the precondition that isbn is the only common column name of the two tables and that a column named title only exists in the Book table, one could re-write the query above in the following form:
Example of a star schema; the central table is the fact table. In data warehousing, a fact table consists of the measurements, metrics or facts of a business process. It is located at the center of a star schema or a snowflake schema surrounded by dimension tables. Where multiple fact tables are used, these are arranged as a fact constellation ...
An example of a database that has not enforced referential integrity. In this example, there is a foreign key (artist_id) value in the album table that references a non-existent artist — in other words there is a foreign key value with no corresponding primary key value in the referenced table.
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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.