AI engineering glossary · Data engineering
What is surrogate key?
Surrogate key: An artificial identifier, usually a meaningless number, assigned to a row in a warehouse table instead of relying on the source system's business key. It stays stable if source keys change and supports keeping history.
Surrogate key: an example
Customer 'C-1023' from the CRM is stored under surrogate key 88,412 in the customer dimension.
Related terms
More Data engineering terms
Where you learn it
Surrogate key is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.