Unable to generate merge script for tables with no primary key

[Adam]

I have dictionary tables that hold translated strings, ie. ComponentLoc with the following columns
ComponentId - foreign key to Components.Id
Name - holds translated name
Locale - foreign key to Locales.Id

When running SP
EXEC dbo.sp_generate_merge @schema = 'dbo', @table_name ='ComponentLoc'
I'm getting the following error:

Msg 50000, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_generate_merge, Line 452 [Batch Start Line 1]
Table has no primary keys. There should at least be one column in order to have a valid join.

The thing is that I can't add primary key to column Name; adding extra column just for the primary key doesn't make sense to me.

[Daniel Nolan]

The tool currently needs the PK columns in order to uniquely match the rows of the static data (VALUES clause) to the destination table. For tables that don't have a PK, a parameter could potentially added to the tool so that it doesn't need to be physically added to the table itself.

However may I ask how your queries join onto or lookup data from ComponentLoc, for example, do they both use ComponentId and Locale to retrieve the Name?

[Adam]

The temporary workaround here is to use composite key (WidgetId, Locale).
Here is the sample query:

SELECT c.Id, c.[Name], c.[Type], c.[SubType], cl.[Locale], cl.[Title], c.[DateCreated], c.[DateUpdated] FROM dbo.Components c INNER JOIN dbo.ComponentLoc cl ON cl.ComponentId = c.Id WHERE c.Id = @Id AND cl.Locale = @Locale

[Daniel Nolan]

Thanks for providing those query details. Out of curiosity, is there any particular reason for not having the composite PK on the table permanently?

[Daniel Nolan]

You can now generate a MERGE statement for a table that lacks a primary key using the newly-added @cols_to_join_on parameter (comma-separated, single-quote qualified string):

EXEC sp_generate_merge 'StateProvince', @schema = 'Person', @cols_to_join_on = "'StateProvinceCode'"