Keys to Uniqueness: Candidate Keys in DBMS

This is where the concept of keys comes into play in database management systems (DBMS). Keys are special attributes or groups of attributes that help us identify records uniquely. One foundational concept is the candiadate key in dbms. Think of all the attributes you have for a record (like a person's name, address, phone number, ID). A candidate key is any single attribute, or a combination of attributes, that could potentially uniquely identify that record, and that doesn't contain any extra, unnecessary attributes. For example, a Social Security Number could be a candidate key for a person because it's meant to be unique.