DBMS: Candidate Key (Definitions)

"A unique identifier for a row within a database table. A candidate, or surrogate, key can be made up of one or more columns. In a normalized database, every table must have at least one candidate key, in which case it is considered the primary key for a table automatically. However, it is possible for a table to have more than one candidate key, in which case one of them must be designated as the primary key. Any candidate key that is not the primary key is called the alternate key." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"Any attribute or group of attributes that uniquely identifies each instance of an entity and that’s a possible choice for the primary key." (Sharon Allen & Evan Terry, "Beginning Relational Data Modeling" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"Also known as a potential key, or permissible key. A field or combination of fields, which can act as a primary key field for a table. A candidate key uniquely identifies each record in the table." (Gavin Powell, "Beginning Database Design", 2006)

"Any data item or group of data items which identify uniquely tuples in a relation." (S. Sumathi & S. Esakkirajan, "Fundamentals of Relational Database Management Systems", 2007)

"A minimal superkey. In other words, the fields in a candidate key uniquely define the records in a table and no subset of those fields also uniquely defines the records." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Database Design Solutions", 2008)

"Any subset of the attributes (data items) in a superkey that is also a superkey and is not reducible to another superkey." (Toby J Teorey, ", Database Modeling and Design" 4th Ed., 2010)

"A column or set of columns that have a unique value for each row in a table." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"An attribute or set of attributes that can be used to uniquely identify an occurrence of the entity. Each entity may have one or more candidate keys. One of these candidate keys is selected as the table primary key." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"A column or combination of columns that can be used as the primary key of a relation." (Jan L Harrington, "Relational Database Design and Implementation" 3rd Ed., 2009)