Exporting a CSV item and ZKey generation

partnoonein

Each time one exports a CSV item, the value of the ZKey changes regardless of any changes in a Zotero metadata (title, file attachments, author, or anything else) for the book. So I would have thought that as long as the metadata for a book did not change, it would export the same unique ZKey.
I would appreciate any insights and perhaps a fix; it will be helpful for integration with other tools that can rely on the export of a stable constant unique key for an entry (assuming metadata for it does not change.
Thank you,

emilianoeheyns

I don't see a column labeled "ZKey" in the Zotero CSV export, but if you mean the first column "Key", that doesn't change for an item, even when everything else of the item is changed. The only way this key can "change" is by merging duplicates, in which case you get one of the existing keys of the items being merged.

partnoonein

Thanks very much. Yes, I meant the "Key". Thanks for explaining the duplicates and key relationships. I was getting different keys for duplicates without realizing i was exporting a different duplicate item each time; this makes sense.
Thank you,