Why use Surrogate Key in DBMS?
There are several reasons to use surrogate keys in database tables:
- Uniqueness: Data integrity is improved by the guaranteed uniqueness of surrogate keys.
- Stability: Since surrogate keys do not depend on any business rules or data value, they have a lower chance of changing over time.
- Efficiency: Compared to natural keys, surrogate keys are frequently smaller and process more quickly.
- Flexibility: In the event that the natural key changes, rows can still be uniquely identified using surrogate keys.
Surrogate Key in DBMS
A key is a column, or group of columns, in a database management system (DBMS) that uniquely identifies every row in a table. Natural keys and surrogate keys are the two categories of keys.
- Natural Key: A column, or group of columns, that is generated from the table’s data is known as a natural key. For instance, since it uniquely identifies every client in the table, the customer ID column in a customer table serves as a natural key.
- Surrogate key: A column that is not generated from the data in the database is known as a surrogate key. Rather, the DBMS generates a unique identifier for you. In database tables, surrogate keys are frequently utilized as primary keys.