Alternate Keys in Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant

Correct Answers: B and D

All Dataverse tables have a primary key.

A primary key is a GUID.

When you read or write records, it is not efficient to search for GUID first and then access the record.

Therefore, it is more convenient and efficient to have another unique key for the record - an alternate key.

You can use any column or combination of columns that uniquely identify the records as an alternate key.

An alternate key can be used as a substitute for a primary key.

An alternate key is also helpful for integration between Dataverse records and external sources.

External databases can use an alternate key for the records access.

Options B is correct because an alternate key is a unique identifier of the Dataverse record.

Options D is correct because an alternate key can be a column or combination of columns that uniquely identifies the Dataverse record.

Options A is incorrect because an alternate key is an alternative to the GUID of the primary key.

Options C is incorrect because users can use an alternate key to access the records within Dataverse and integrate with external databases.

For more information about Dataverse alternate keys, please visit the below URLs:

Alternate keys in Dataverse are used to define unique combinations of fields that can be used to identify records. Here are the correct statements about alternate keys:

A. An alternate key is not a GUID, but it is a user-defined identifier that can be created by combining one or more fields from the entity.

B. An alternate key uniquely identifies a Dataverse record. This means that each record in an entity can be identified using one or more alternate keys.

C. An alternate key is not only for integration with external systems. It is also used to maintain data integrity within Dataverse itself. Alternate keys are used to ensure that duplicate records are not created within an entity.

D. An alternate key can be a unique combination of columns. When creating an alternate key, you can select one or more fields from an entity to use as the key. The combination of these fields must be unique across all records in the entity.

Alternate keys are useful for integration scenarios because they allow external systems to identify records in Dataverse without relying on the system-generated GUID. However, they are also useful for maintaining data integrity within Dataverse itself.

Overall, alternate keys are a powerful feature of Dataverse that allow for more flexible and accurate data management.