Getting cannot find an index in the referenced table error - mysql

Question

Cannot find an index in the referenced table where the referenced columns appear as the first columns, or column types in the table and the referenced table do not match for constraint. Note that the internal storage type of ENUM and SET changed in tables created with >= InnoDB-4.1.12, and such columns in old tables cannot be referenced by such columns in new tables.
Above is the full description of error im getting. i checked the indexes of both table and should be fine but it still gives me this error.
Below is the tables structure.
CREATE TABLE `contact_address` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`address_type` int(5) DEFAULT NULL,
`address` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`postcode` varchar(50) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`area` int(5) DEFAULT NULL,
`state` int(5) DEFAULT NULL,
`country` char(2) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`phone` varchar(50) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`fax` varchar(50) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`email` varchar(100) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`contact_branch_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`created_at` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
`created_by` int(4) DEFAULT NULL,
`updated_at` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
`updated_by` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `fk_c_a_area` (`area`),
KEY `fk_c_a_state` (`state`),
KEY `fk_c_a_country` (`country`),
KEY `fk_c_a_contact_branch_id` (`contact_branch_id`),
KEY `fk_c_a_created_by` (`created_by`),
CONSTRAINT `fk_c_a_area` FOREIGN KEY (`area`) REFERENCES `ref_area` (`area_id`),
CONSTRAINT `fk_c_a_contact_branch_id` FOREIGN KEY (`contact_branch_id`) REFERENCES `contact_branch` (`id`),
CONSTRAINT `fk_c_a_created_by` FOREIGN KEY (`created_by`) REFERENCES `user` (`id`),
CONSTRAINT `fk_c_a_state` FOREIGN KEY (`state`) REFERENCES `ref_state` (`state_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;
CREATE TABLE `ref_countries` (
`country_code` char(2) NOT NULL,
`country_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`country_name` varchar(80) NOT NULL,
`alpha_3` char(3) DEFAULT NULL,
`calling_code` int(5) NOT NULL,
`continent_name` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`country_code`),
KEY `country_id` (`country_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=253 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;
Im trying to run this and giving me the error.
ALTER TABLE `contact_address`
ADD CONSTRAINT `fk_c_a_countries` FOREIGN KEY (`country`)
REFERENCES `ref_countries` (`country_code`);

Answer 1

The error message you're getting suggests that there's a problem with the foreign key constraint that you're trying to add to the contact_address table. Based on the table definitions you've provided, there are a couple of things that could be causing the issue:
The data type of the country column in the contact_address table is char(2), while the data type of the country_code column in the ref_countries table is char(2) NOT NULL. The NOT NULL constraint on the country_code column may be causing the problem.
Another possibility is that the ref_countries table have not have AUTO_INCREMENT on country_code column, but the contact_address table's country column is referencing that.
You can try the following:
Remove the NOT NULL constraint from the country_code column in the ref_countries table.
Add AUTO_INCREMENT to the country_code column in the ref_countries table.
Also, make sure that there is a matching value in the ref_countries table for each value of the country column in the contact_address table.