The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table. Primary keys must contain unique values. A primary key ...
The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.
Primary keys must contain unique values.
A primary key column cannot contain NULL values.
Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only one primary key.
SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "P_Id" column when the "Persons" table is created:MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons ( P_Id int NOT NULL, LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL, FirstName varchar(255), Address varchar(255), City varchar(255), PRIMARY KEY (P_Id) ) |
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons ( P_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL, FirstName varchar(255), Address varchar(255), City varchar(255) ) |
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 ( P_Id int NOT NULL, LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL, FirstName varchar(255), Address varchar(255), City varchar(255), CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName) ) |
SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on ALTER TABLE
To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is already created, use the following SQL:MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons ADD PRIMARY KEY (P_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_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_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).
To 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_PersonID |