5.1.6 The customer Table

The customer table contains a list of all customers.

The customer table is referred to in the payment and rental tables and refers to the address and store tables using foreign keys.

Columns

• customer_id: A surrogate primary key used to uniquely identify each customer in the table.

• store_id: A foreign key identifying the customer “home store.” Customers are not limited to renting only from this store, but this is the store at which they generally shop.

• first_name: The customer first name.

• last_name: The customer last name.

• email: The customer email address.

• address_id: A foreign key identifying the customer address in the address table.

• active: Indicates whether the customer is an active customer. Setting this to FALSE serves as an alternative to deleting a customer outright. Most queries should have a WHERE active = TRUE clause.

• create_date: The date the customer was added to the system. This date is automatically set using a trigger during an INSERT.

• last_update: When the row was created or most recently updated.