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The rows in a relational database table share common attribute data types. Each row
refers to a particular entity (University of Liverpool, 2015). The relational database must satisfy
the constraints of the entity arising from the choice of a primary key and the referential
integrity resulting from the selection of foreign keys (Levene and Loizou, 2001).
Entity integrity is the condition in which each entity has a unique identification (Coronel
and Morris, 2015). To ensure the entity integrity, primary keys are used which is an attribute in
the database that uniquely determines a row in the table. The primary key that satisfies the
entity integrity must have the following requirements (Codd, 1990):
1- All values in that primary key must be unique.
2- None of the components in the primary key is null or has a missing value.
Table 1, shows an example of a database for courses offered by an organisation. Using
the attribute “Course_ID” as a primary key because of its uniqueness (IBM Knowledge Center,
2010a), minimal attribute, stable, automatically created when a row is created and does not
hold security information (Relational DB Design, no date a). If the user queries the database
using this primary key, it will return one and only one single row.
REFERENCES
Codd, E. F. (1990) The relational model for database management: version 2. Reading, Mass:
Addison-Wesley.
Coronel, C. and Morris, S. (2015) Database Systems Design, Implementation, and Management.
11th edn. Cengage Learning.
Relational DB Design (no date a) Define Database Primary Key. Available at:
https://www.relationaldbdesign.com/relational-database-analysis/module2/database-primary-
key.php (Accessed: 9 June 2018).
Relational DB Design (no date b) Defining Foreign keys in Relational Database. Available at:
https://www.relationaldbdesign.com/relational-database-analysis/module2/defining-foreign-
keys.php (Accessed: 9 June 2018).
Stein, S. et al. (2017) Primary and Foreign Key Constraints. Available at:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/tables/primary-and-foreign-key-
constraints (Accessed: 9 June 2018).
Unisys Corporation (2017) ‘SQL Referential Integrity Constraints’, in Relational Database Server
for ClearPath MCP Query Processor Installation and Operations Guide. Available at:
https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-18.0/82223819-002/section-
000018865.html (Accessed: 9 June 2018).
University of Liverpool (2015) ‘Week 2 - The Relational Database Model, Part 1’, in CKIT 504:
Designing and Managing Databases, pp. 1–8. Available at:
https://elearning.uol.ohecampus.com/bbcswebdav/institution/UKL1/_MASTERS_/MS_CKIT/CKI
T_504/readings/UKL1_CKIT_504_Week02_LectureNotes_part1.pdf (Accessed: 9 June 2018).