Only accept values based on another table ? (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Django) - mysql

Question

I'm developing a School/University software and I got stucked in this situation:
Table Professor
id
name
1
Mr. Ward
2
Mr. Smith
Table Subject
id
name
1
Math
2
Physics
3
English
Table ProfessorsSubject
p_id
s_id
1
1
1
2
2
3
(Mr. Ward, Math), (Mr. Ward, Physics) and (Mr. Smith, English)
Table StudentClass:
id
name
Building
10
Tenth Grade
A
11
Eleventh Grade
A
Table A:
sclass_id
subj_id
prof_id
foo
bar
10
1
1
foo1
bar1
10
2
1
foo2
bar2
10
3
NULL
foo3
bar3
11
1
1
foo4
bar4
11
2
1
foo5
bar5
11
3
2
foo6
bar6
The pair(sclass_id, subj_id) must be UNIQUE.
prof_id might be NULL.
CREATE TABLE Professor (
id int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
name varchar(100) NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE Subject (
id int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
name varchar(100) NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE ProfessorsSubject (
prof_id int,
subj_id int,
PRIMARY KEY (prof_id, subj_id),
FOREIGN KEY (prof_id) REFERENCES Professor(id),
FOREIGN KEY (subj_id) REFERENCES Subject(id)
);
CREATE TABLE StudentClass (
id int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
name varchar(100) NOT NULL,
building varchar(100)
);
CREATE TABLE A (
sclass_id int,
subj_id int,
prof_id int,
foo varchar(10),
bar varchar(10),
PRIMARY KEY (sclass_id, subj_id),
FOREIGN KEY (sclass_id) REFERENCES StudentClass (id),
FOREIGN KEY (subj_id ) REFERENCES ProfessorsSubject (subj_id),
FOREIGN KEY (prof_id ) REFERENCES ProfessorsSubject (prof_id)
);
/* ==================================================================== */
INSERT INTO Professor(id, name) VALUES (1, "Mr. Ward");
INSERT INTO Professor(id, name) VALUES (2, "Mr. Smith");
INSERT INTO Subject(id, name) VALUES (1, "Math");
INSERT INTO Subject(id, name) VALUES (2, "Physics");
INSERT INTO Subject(id, name) VALUES (3, "English");
INSERT INTO ProfessorsSubject (prof_id, subj_id) VALUES (1, 1);
INSERT INTO ProfessorsSubject (prof_id, subj_id) VALUES (1, 2);
INSERT INTO ProfessorsSubject (prof_id, subj_id) VALUES (2, 3);
INSERT INTO StudentClass(id, name, building) VALUES (10, "Tenth Grade", "A");
INSERT INTO StudentClass(id, name, building) VALUES (11, "Eleventh Grade", "A");
/* ==================================================================== */
INSERT INTO A (sclass_id, subj_id, prof_id, foo, bar) VALUES (10, 1, 1, "foo1", "bar1");
INSERT INTO A (sclass_id, subj_id, prof_id, foo, bar) VALUES (10, 2, 1, "foo2", "bar2");
INSERT INTO A (sclass_id, subj_id, prof_id, foo, bar) VALUES (10, 3, 1, "foo3", "bar3");
/* ==================================================================== */
Mr. Ward shouldn't be able to teach English to Tenth Grade, because this combination is not present in table ProfessorsSubject.
To avoid inconsitences in a database level, how to make sure the pair (prof_id, subj_id) in Table A respects what is in "SubjectOfProfessor" table before insert?
1.1) Is it necessary to use Procedures? Triggers ?
1.2) Is it possible to make this just using fields proprieties and/or constraints ?
What if I wanted to do this using Django ORM in a databased level ?
Reference: migrations.RunSQL('ALTER TABLE app_event ADD CONSTRAINT chronology CHECK (start_date > end_date);

Answer 1

You can use a combined foreign key in the table A as you did with the primary key in the table ProfessorsSubject. A corresponding index on the referenced table is required which actually is fulfilled by its primary key already.
FOREIGN KEY (subj_id, prof_id) REFERENCES ProfessorsSubject (subj_id, prof_id)