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Selecting primary key fields

Data loader

tasks can automatically detect primary key fields for many source types. You can also choose your own primary key fields, or set them as not required.

Primary key fields uniquely identify each record in a source object. For example, in a CUSTOMERS table, the values in the CUSTOMER_ID column uniquely identify each customer. A source object can have one primary key field, a composite key that consists of several primary key fields, or no primary key fields.

Primary key fields are needed if you want to update rows when you re-run the task. If there are no primary key fields, the task inserts records into the target tables, but it cannot update rows.

Select primary key fields on the

Connect Source

page under

Define Primary Keys

You can select primary key fields in the following ways:

Automatically detect from source: The task identifies the primary key fields automatically in each source object that has them. This is the default option for many types of sources. This option is not available for file-based sources.

If you choose this option but there are no primary key fields in the source objects or the task can't detect the primary key fields, then the task inserts records into the target tables.
Primary key fields not required: Select this option if you want to perform a full load every time the task runs. For example, you want to read data from database tables that have primary key fields, but you don't want to update rows in the target when you re-run the task.

When you select this option, the task inserts records into the target tables.
Enter manually: Select this option to choose the primary key fields in each source object. If you select this option, you must also specify whether the source objects have the same primary key fields or different primary key fields.

If the source objects have the same primary key fields, select
The same across all sources
. Then, click
Choose
to select the primary key fields.

If the source objects have different primary key fields, select
Different across sources
. Then, click the plus sign (
+
) icon in the
Primary Key Fields
area and select the source object and the primary key fields. Repeat this process to select primary key fields for other source objects.

The
Primary Key Fields
area displays the primary key fields for each source object. To update the primary key fields for a source object, click the primary key fields for that source object. To delete all primary key fields for a source object, click the
Delete
icon in the row that contains the source object.

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Selecting primary key fields

Selecting primary key fields