What is the main benefit of using primary and foreign keys in a relational database?

Using primary and foreign keys in a relational database fundamentally supports the integrity and consistency of data across related tables. A primary key serves as a unique identifier for each record in a table, ensuring that no two records are identical. This uniqueness is critical for maintaining data integrity.

Foreign keys, on the other hand, are used to establish relationships between tables. They reference primary keys in other tables, creating a link that enforces referential integrity. This means that for any foreign key entry, there must be a corresponding primary key entry in the related table. By ensuring this relationship, both primary and foreign keys help prevent orphaned records and maintain a cohesive data structure.

In summary, the main benefit of using primary and foreign keys is to ensure that the data remains consistent across the database, allowing for accurate relationships and reliable data retrieval, which is crucial in data management and querying processes.