Netezza/ PureData – How to add a primary key

While primary keys (PK) are not enforced within Netezza, they still provide significant value and should be added.  Among the values that adding primary key provides are:

• Inform tools have meta Data import capabilities; for example, DBeaver, ETL tools, data modeling tools, Infosphere Data Architect, DataStage, DataQuality, and Infosphere Information Server suite of tools (e.g., Governance Console, Information analyzer, etc.).
• Visually helps developers, data modelers, and users to know what the keys primary keys of the table are, which may not be obvious with the table structure. This is especially true for tables utilizing compound keys as the primary key.
• The query optimizer will use these definitions to define efficient query execution plans
• Identifying Primary Keys information provides migratable self-documenting Meta Data.
• Aides in the facilitation of future data and application enrichment projects

Basic Primary Key syntax

ALTER TABLE <<schema.tablename>> ADD CONSTRAINT <<ConstraintName>> PRIMARY KEY (FieldNames);

Example Primary Key syntax

ALTER TABLEtime_dim ADD CONSTRAINT time_dim_pk PRIMARY KEY (time_srky);