intelligent key

1 definition found

intelligent key - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  intelligent key
  
     <database> A relational database key which depends wholly
     on one or more other columns in the same table.  An
     intelligent key might be identified for implementation
     convenience, where there is no good candidate key.
  
     For example, if the three-letter initials of a group of people
     are known to be unique but only their full names are recorded,
     a three letter acronym for their names (e.g. John Doe Smith ->
     JDS) would be an intelligent key.
  
     Intelligent keys are a Bad Thing because it is hard to
     guarantee uniqueness, and if the value on which an intelligent
     key depends changes then the key must either stay the same,
     creating an inconsistency within the containing table, or
     change, requiring changes to all other tables in which it
     appears as a foreign key.  The correct solution is to use a
     surrogate key.
  
     (1999-12-07)