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sp_primarykeys (Transact-SQL)

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Applies to: SQL Server

Returns the primary key columns, one row per key column, for the specified remote table.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

sp_primarykeys
    [ @table_server = ] N'table_server'
    [ , [ @table_name = ] N'table_name' ]
    [ , [ @table_schema = ] N'table_schema' ]
    [ , [ @table_catalog = ] N'table_catalog' ]
[ ; ]

Arguments

[ @table_server = ] N'table_server'

The name of the linked server from which to return primary key information. @table_server is sysname, with no default.

[ @table_name = ] N'table_name'

The name of the table for which to provide primary key information. @table_name is sysname, with a default of NULL.

[ @table_schema = ] N'table_schema'

The table schema. @table_schema is sysname, with a default of NULL. In the SQL Server environment, this value corresponds to the table owner.

[ @table_catalog = ] N'table_catalog'

The name of the catalog in which the specified @table_name resides. @table_catalog is sysname, with a default of NULL. In the SQL Server environment, this value corresponds to the database name.

Return code values

None.

Result set

Column name Data type Description
TABLE_CAT sysname Table catalog.
TABLE_SCHEM sysname Table schema.
TABLE_NAME sysname Name of the table.
COLUMN_NAME sysname Name of the column.
KEY_SEQ int Sequence number of the column in a multicolumn primary key.
PK_NAME sysname Primary key identifier. Returns NULL if not applicable to the data source.

Remarks

sp_primarykeys is executed by querying the PRIMARY_KEYS rowset of the IDBSchemaRowset interface of the OLE DB provider corresponding to @table_server. The parameters are passed to this interface to restrict the rows returned.

sp_primarykeys returns an empty result set if the OLE DB provider of the specified linked server doesn't support the PRIMARY_KEYS rowset of the IDBSchemaRowset interface.

Permissions

Requires SELECT permission on the schema.

Examples

The following example returns primary key columns from the LONDON1 server for the HumanResources.JobCandidate table in the AdventureWorks2022 database.

EXEC sp_primarykeys @table_server = N'LONDON1',
    @table_name = N'JobCandidate',
    @table_catalog = N'AdventureWorks2022',
    @table_schema = N'HumanResources';

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