Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
1,757,792,256 visitors served.
forum mailing list For webmasters
?
New: Language forums
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

surrogate key

   Also found in: Acronyms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
(database)surrogate key - A unique primary key generated by the RDBMS that is not derived from any data in the database and whose only significance is to act as the primary key.

A surrogate key is frequently a sequential number (e.g. a Sybase "identity column") but doesn't have to be. Having the key independent of all other columns insulates the database relationships from changes in data values or database design and guarantees uniqueness.

Some database designers use surrogate keys religiously regardless of the suitability of other candidate keys. However, if a good key already exists, the addition of a surrogate key will merely slow down access, particularly if it is indexed.

Compare: intelligent key.


How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
 Email
Feedback
? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
announces UBS AG, a leading global financial services firm, has deployed Sapior Redbridge, Sapior's specialised surrogate key mapping tool, to speed indexing and join performances of its credit risk data warehouse.
UBS Deploys Sapior Redbridge to Enhance Data Warehouse Performance by Business Wire
today unveiled Redbridge(tm), a specialised surrogate key mapping tool for high performance data integration.
Sapior Introduces Redbridge High Performance Surrogate Key Mapping ... by Business Wire
These critical features--along with surrogate key lookup and automatic parallelism--ensure greater ease of use in importing, exporting and sharing jobs and functions among users in disparate computing environments.
Informix Formation Speeds Data Transformation for Building Business ... by Business Wire
More results
 
Encyclopedia browser? ? Full browser
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Disclaimer | Privacy policy | Feedback | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. Terms of Use.