Term for incorrect primary key From a database theory point of view, what term can be used to refer to a key that does not violate the rules of the engine within which it is implemented, but fails to conform to any sort of normalisation? For instance, if a timestamp was used as a primary key. Primary keys are supposed to ensure that no two rows refer to the same thing, but as long as the values within the so-called primary key column is unique, the database engine may not detect any violation.

The reason for wanting to obtain a technical or academic term for this is to describe a situation where there is a primary key that has been technically successfully implemented, but is conceptually flawed.
For instance, if a timestamp was used as a primary key. Primary keys are supposed to ensure that no two rows refer to the same thing, but as long as the values within the so-called primary key column is unique, the database engine may not detect any violation.


For this example I would simply state that the problem is that the uniqueness of values of timestamps, if it happens to hold, is only accidental: there is generally no fundamental reason that the same timestamp (even with very high precision) could not be assigned to 2 separate records.

For a primary key uniqueness should not be accidental but fundamental.