is the key we use in phpmyadmin is a primary key or a surrogate key?

Question

What's the difference between a primary key and surrogate key if both are unique keys. The primary key acts same as a surrogate key in phpmyadmin. I have heard in a video that a surrogate key is independent of the other columns of the table. Also what it has to do with the fact table and dimension table.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 21 '21 at 19:19

A surrogate key is a primary key that is created within the data load process of a data warehouse. There are a number of reasons for using a surrogate key rather than the primary key from a source system; these include:

SKs are normally integers and tend to perform better in joins than the long(er) alphanumerics that PKs may consist of
if you load the same target from multiple sources then you can't guarantee that a PK from one source system is unique across all source systems
if you are creating SCD2 records for a dimension then you would have multiple records per PK i.e. the PK would not uniquely identify a record

is the key we use in phpmyadmin is a primary key or a surrogate key?

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