Understanding Keys

A field or a combination of fields uniquely identifies every table in your PeopleSoft database. For example, the employee ID field uniquely identifies your employee records. As another example, when employees enroll in training classes, the combination of employee ID, course code, and course start date uniquely identifies enrollment requests.

The fields that uniquely identify your data are called keys or key fields. To display a page, you enter the keys to search for on the search page, so that the system can retrieve the correct row of data. For example, to retrieve the personal data page for Jim Smith, you must specify the key data in the search record for that employee.

A search record is the list of defined search keys that help you locate data. Search keys are the fields that you are prompted for on a search page. If you search and exactly specify the key fields, the system will always return only one (or no) result. Most transaction pages or components have search records associated with them. If you select other pages that have a common search record, such as pages within a component or an associated link, you are not prompted to enter search criteria again. You are prompted for new search keys only when you select a component that is based on a different search record.