# Totally noob question...what is a foreign key?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/totally-noob-question-what-is-a-foreign-key/267933>\
**Category:** programming\
**Created:** [August 7, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/totally-noob-question-what-is-a-foreign-key/267933 "2008-08-07T12:52:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bluemagica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@bluemagica](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/bluemagica)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/totally-noob-question-what-is-a-foreign-key/267933/1 "2008-08-07T12:52:19Z")

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As you can clearly understand i have no idea about databases, and so i am asking, what the heck is a foreign key, why, when and where is it used? I tried googling, but the definitions kindof went over my head…if you can, please explain with a practical scenario!