Primary keys

What it is

A primary key uniquely identifies a row.

When to use it

Use stable identifiers independent of mutable business data.

Syntax

id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY

Example

CREATE TABLE users (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    email TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    name TEXT NOT NULL
);

Common mistakes

SQLite INTEGER PRIMARY KEY is special; do not assume its auto-increment behavior transfers to all engines.

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