How can you create a primary key in Excel?

The process of creating a primary key in Excel involves using a combination of unique fields in your dataset. A primary key is an essential concept in database management that ensures each record in a dataset is unique, allowing for accurate and efficient data retrieval. In Excel, you can establish a primary key by identifying one or more columns that contain unique values for each row. This ensures that there are no duplicates, which is crucial for maintaining data integrity.

When you properly set up a primary key using unique fields, it allows for better organization, sorting, and filtering of data. This concept mirrors the functionality found in relational databases, where primary keys play a critical role in linking tables and ensuring data consistency.

The other options do not effectively or directly relate to the establishment of a primary key. Merging cells, for instance, can make data handling more complicated and does not guarantee uniqueness. Applying different colors to cells serves a visual purpose but does not contribute to establishing data identity. Creating a pivot table is useful for summarizing data but does not inherently involve defining a primary key.