005·14

keys and identity

/kiːz ænd aɪˈdɛn.tɪ.ti/ - n.

1 [colloq.] The unanswered question of whether two rows are the same person, deferred until a regulator asks it for you.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. The discipline of deciding what uniquely distinguishes one record from another, and which attribute the model trusts to do so over time.

Filed

See also

entity resolutionDeciding whether these four customers are one customer, a question the org would rather bill four times than answer once.
master dataThe handful of nouns the entire company depends on and no single function will admit it owns.
natural keyA key the business swore was unique and permanent, right up until the merger, the typo, and the reissued account number.
surrogate keyA number we invented so we would stop arguing about which real-world thing it points to. The argument moved one table over.