What is an alternate key in Dataverse?

Every record in Dataverse has an internal ID, but the outside world does not know it. An alternate key lets you identify the record using something the business actually uses.

What it is used for

During import, the system matches on the key rather than the name. With an integration, another system can update the correct customer without knowing the Dataverse ID. And when an import is repeated, existing records are updated instead of duplicates being created.

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The organization number is by far the best option for companies. For contacts, an email address can be used, but be aware that spouses may share an address and that people change jobs.

The value must be unique

If the same value already exists twice, the key cannot be created. This forces you to clean up duplicates—which is inconvenient at the time, and valuable for precisely that reason.