Alternate Key Attributes

After you select a primary key from a list of candidate keys, designate some or all of the remaining candidate keys as alternate keys. Alternate keys are often used to identify the different indexes, which are used to access the data quickly. In a data model, an alternate key is designated by the symbol (AKn). n is a number that is placed after the attributes that form the alternate key group. In the EMPLOYEE entity, �employee name� and �employee birth date� are members of the alternate key group.