Flash cards
Review the key moves
What is the main idea behind SQL PRIMARY KEY Keyword?
Lesson checks
Practice each idea before moving on
Short Mimo-style checks built from this lesson's code, terms, and sequence.
Which statement best captures the main point of this lesson?
Complete the missing token from the example code.
___ TABLE PersonsPut the learning moves in the order that makes the concept easiest to apply.
Primary Key
The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a table.
A table can have only one primary key, which may consist of one single or of multiple fields.
SQL PRIMARY KEY on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "ID" column when the "Persons" table is created:
MySQL
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
ID int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int
);To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
CONSTRAINT PK_Person PRIMARY KEY (ID,LastName)
);Note
In the example above there is only ONE PRIMARY KEY (PK_Person). However, the VALUE of the primary key is made up of TWO COLUMNS (ID + LastName).
SQL PRIMARY KEY on ALTER TABLE
To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "ID" column when the table is already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD PRIMARY KEY (ID);To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Person PRIMARY KEY (ID,LastName);Note
If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the primary key column(s) must already have been declared to not contain NULL values (when the table was first created).
DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint
To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP PRIMARY KEY;SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT PK_Person;