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CBSE Class 12 Computer Science Question 46 of 91

Relational Database and SQL — Question 7

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Question 4

What do you understand by the terms candidate key and alternate key in a relational database?

Answer

All attribute combinations inside a relation that can serve as primary key are candidate keys as they are candidates for the primary key position.

A candidate key that is not the primary key is called an alternate key. In other words, any attribute that is a candidate for the primary key, i.e., which is capable of becoming a primary key but is not a primary key, is an alternate key.