Noting the primary key in Stata files

Most tables in databases have a primary key defined and this can be a help with Stata files too. If you have a primary key defined by a single variable then you can use xtset (or tsset if it's a time variable). If you have a composite key and one of them is a time variable you can use xtset/tsset. Otherwise, you should have a consistent way of listing it. One way is to store it as a dta characteristic, such as:
. char _dta[key] keyvar(s)
See also isid.