Keys are the essential elements of any relational database. It identifies each tuple in a table. Here in this article, we discuss important keys, super key and candidate key. Super Key is a set of attributes or columns that uniquely identifies each row table whereas, a candidate key is a set of attributes that recognizes the tuples in a relation, or table. Let’s analyze more differences between super key and candidate key.
What is Super Key?
Super Key is a set of attributes or columns that uniquely identifies each row in a table. In other words, we can say that It is a combination of columns that identifies a row in a table.
What is a Candidate Key?
A candidate key is a set of attributes that recognizes the tuples in relation or table.
Difference between Super Key and Candidate Key
| S.NO | Super Key | Candidate Key |
| 1. | It is a set of attributes or columns that uniquely identifies each row in a table. | It is a set of attributes that recognizes the tuples in relation or table. |
| 2. | The count of super keys is more as compared to the candidate key. | The count of candidate keys is less compared to the super keys. |
| 3. | Every super key cannot be a candidate key. | All candidate keys are super keys. |
| 4. | Numerous candidate keys collectively make the guidelines to choose the primary keys. | Numerous super keys collectively make the guidelines to choose the candidate keys. |
| 5. | The attributes of the super key can have NULL values. | The attributes of the candidate can also have NULL values. |
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