Surrogate keys

Introduction to Relational Databases in SQL

Timo Grossenbacher

Data Journalist

Surrogate keys

Primary keys should be built from as few columns as possible
Primary keys should never change over time

     license_no     | serial_no |    make    |  model  | color
 -------------------+-----------+------------+---------+------
 Texas ABC-739      | A69352    | Ford       | Mustang | blue
 Florida TVP-347    | B43696    | Oldsmobile | Cutlass | black
 New York MPO-22    | X83554    | Oldsmobile | Delta   | silver
 California 432-TFY | C43742    | Mercedes   | 190-D   | champagne
 California RSK-629 | Y82935    | Toyota     | Camry   | red
 Texas RSK-629      | U028365   | Jaguar     | XJS     | blue

    make    |  model  | color
 -----------+---------+------
 Ford       | Mustang | blue
 Oldsmobile | Cutlass | black
 Oldsmobile | Delta   | silver
 Mercedes   | 190-D   | champagne
 Toyota     | Camry   | red
 Jaguar     | XJS     | blue

Adding a surrogate key with serial data type

ALTER TABLE cars
ADD COLUMN id serial PRIMARY KEY;

INSERT INTO cars
VALUES ('Volkswagen', 'Blitz', 'black');

    make    |  model  | color       | id
  ----------+---------+-------------+-------------
 Ford       | Mustang | blue        | 1
 Oldsmobile | Cutlass | black       | 2
 Oldsmobile | Delta   | silver      | 3
 Mercedes   | 190-D   | champagne   | 4
 Toyota     | Camry   | red         | 5
 Jaguar     | XJS     | blue        | 6
 Volkswagen | Blitz   | black       | 7

Adding a surrogate key with serial data type (contd.)

INSERT INTO cars
VALUES ('Opel', 'Astra', 'green', 1);

duplicate key value violates unique constraint "id_pkey"
DETAIL:  Key (id)=(1) already exists.

"id" uniquely identifies records in the table – useful for referencing!

Another type of surrogate key

ALTER TABLE table_name
ADD COLUMN column_c varchar(256);

UPDATE table_name
SET column_c = CONCAT(column_a, column_b);

ALTER TABLE table_name
ADD CONSTRAINT pk PRIMARY KEY (column_c);

Let's try this!

Introduction to Relational Databases in SQL