# IDs in Data Explorer

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/ids-in-data-explorer/224775>\
**Category:** Data & reporting\
**Tags:** sql-query\
**Created:** [April 19, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/ids-in-data-explorer/224775 "2022-04-19T18:02:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ganncamp/32/106199_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ganncamp)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/ids-in-data-explorer/224775/1 "2022-04-19T18:02:51Z")

</div>

I’ve noticed that if I select an FK ID in a table, I get a beautifully presented, linked name. Whereas if I select a PK ID in a table, I just get a number.

For example, when I select the (PK) id field from Posts:

 ![Selection_130](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/1/1/9/1197d0d931ff6196f07d1006dbac539320f9ac6b.png)

Versus when I select the (FK) topic\_id field from Posts:

 ![Selection_129](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/7/0/e/70e5614dcec26507318045e22ee04cf53577769b.png)

I’ve been wondering if there’s some sleight-of-hand I can do to get this lovely linking behavior from PKs. Or do I always need to throw in an extra table & select from _it_ when I want linking?

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