foreign key

A value that relates one table to another. For example, the Room Standards table and Rooms table both contain a Room Standard field. In the Room Standards table, values from the Room Standard field act as primary keys and uniquely identify each type of room. In the Rooms table, Room Standard values act as foreign keys to relate the records in the Room Standards and Rooms tables. Foreign keys can relate tables into a table-group, relate tables in an parent-child relationship, or relate tables for validation. See also table-group, validating table.