Let's say I have the following column in my database:
Item:
id int PRIMARY KEY,
name string,
foreign_id FOREIGN KEY
Is there a way without querying the database before insertion each time, that one foreign key cannot contain two rows with the same name?
Sure, you want to add an (unique) index for your foreign key column.
The SQL command to add that is
ALTER TABLE `mytable`
ADD UNIQUE INDEX `mytable_idx__1` (`foreign_id`);
If I understand correctly, you might want to use the UNIQUE constraint:
CREATE TABLE (
id INT PRIMARY KEY
, name VARCHAR(50) --or whatever you need
, foreign_id INT UNIQUE
FOREIGN KEY (foreign_id) REFERENCES...
);
As i Understand using FOREIGN KEY (foreign_id) REFERENCES --- will solve it. And make sure that the always make a unique key of table as foreign key for other table.
CREATE TABLE profile
(
id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
name varchar(50),
FOREIGN KEY (name)
REFERENCES member (name)
ON DELETE CASCADE
ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB ;
Related
I have created a table 'company' having the column actor_id referencing the primary key (id) of the table 'actor'. Now I want to change the column actor_id to reference the primary key (id) of the table director. After trying to drop the foreign key, and creating a new one referencing the new table, it did not work as desired, it stayed the same - referencing the previous (actor) table. What changes should I make?
CREATE TABLE company(
id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
actor_id INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT aID FOREIGN KEY (actor_id) REFERENCES actor(id),
PRIMARY KEY(id)
);
ALTER TABLE company
DROP FOREIGN KEY aID,
ADD CONSTRAINT actID FOREIGN KEY (actor_id) REFERENCES director(id);
Don't see any apparent issues in the code above. I tried same in SQL Fiddle which works. You can check the link.
http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!9/82e334c/2/0
I am new to SQL and I started building my own project. I am having issues creating a foreign key on my second table. . Please let me know what I am missing here.
The second CREATE TABLE statement should be:
CREATE TABLE entry (
issuer_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
issuer_name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
fine INT,
book_id INT,
due_date DATE,
FOREIGN KEY (book_id)
REFERENCES book_table (book_id)
ON DELETE CASCADE
ON UPDATE CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY (due_date)
REFERENCES book_table (due_date)
ON DELETE CASCADE
ON UPDATE CASCADE
);
A foreign key is a column or set of columns in one table that links to a unique key (typically the primary key) in another table. The columns must exist in both tables. They must match in type and the order within the key declarations. They must constitute a unique key in the foreign table.
I have 3 tables. Courses,CourseDestails, CourseBooking.
Courses
CREATE TABLE Courses (
courseId int NOT NULL,
courseName varchar(255),
level varchar(255),
description varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (courseId)
);
CourseDetails
CREATE TABLE CourseDetails (
CourseStartDate int NOT NULL,
Location varchar(255) NOT NULL,
MaxNoPlaces int,
Length int,
Instructor varchar(255),
TotalPlacesBooked int,
NoPlacesCancelled int,
AdultPrice int,
ChildPrice int,
courseId int,
CONSTRAINT PK_CourseDetails PRIMARY KEY (CourseStartDate,Location,courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES Courses(courseId)
);
courseId from courses table is used as foreign key in the CourseDetails table.
Now I want to use CourseStartDate Location & courseId from CourseDetails table in another table called CourseBooking. I know how to add CourseStartDate Location as foreign keys. But I'm confused how to add courseId from courseDetails table as foreign key in the new CourseBookings Table.
I have tried the following
CREATE TABLE CourseBookings (
CourseStartDate int NOT NULL,
Location varchar(255) NOT NULL,
GuestNo int,
courseId int,
CONSTRAINT PK_CourseDetails PRIMARY KEY (CourseStartDate,Location,GuestNo,courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES CourseDetails.courseId(courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (CourseStartDate) REFERENCES CourseDetails(CourseStartDate),
FOREIGN KEY (Location) REFERENCES CourseDetails(Location),
FOREIGN KEY (GuestNo) REFERENCES Guest(GuestNo)
);
But there is an error saying
Can't create table 'b8040777_db1.CourseBookings'
Supports transactions, row-level locking, and foreign keys
There are several issues with the declaration of table CourseBookings.
ISSUE 1
This :
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES CourseDetails.courseId(courseId),
Should be written as :
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES CourseDetails(courseId),
ISSUE 2
One of the columns of CourseDetails, that is referenced by a foreign key of table CourseBookings, has no index.
From the documentation :
MySQL requires indexes on foreign keys and referenced keys so that foreign key checks can be fast and not require a table scan. In the referencing table, there must be an index where the foreign key columns are listed as the first columns in the same order. Such an index is created on the referencing table automatically if it does not exist.
In table CourseDetails :
courseId had an index automatically created because it references Courses(courseId)
CourseStartDate has no index but it is the first column in the index automatically generated by the primary key constraint declaration
Location has no index and it is only the second column in the primary key index --> it is not possible to create a foreign key referencing it, an error is raised when you try
SOLUTION 1
It is always possible to add the missing index to the table, by adding this to the CREATE TABLE CourseDetails statement :
INDEX idx_Location (Location)
SOLUTION 2
In your use case, I suspect that what you actually need is a multicolumn foreign key (supported in InnoDB only), that references the primary key of CourseDetails (an index already exists on these columns). This will allow you to associate each record of CourseBookings with a unique parent record in CourseDetails.
Suggestion of DDL :
CREATE TABLE CourseBookings (
CourseStartDate int NOT NULL,
Location varchar(255) NOT NULL,
GuestNo int,
courseId int,
CONSTRAINT PK_CourseDetails PRIMARY KEY (CourseStartDate,Location,courseId,GuestNo),
FOREIGN KEY (CourseStartDate,Location,courseId)
REFERENCES CourseDetails(CourseStartDate,Location,courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (GuestNo) REFERENCES Guest(GuestNo)
);
SOLUTION 3
If solution 2 fits for your use case, then it means that your schema can be optimized by creating an autoincremented integer primary key on table CourseDetails. The existing primary key can be turned into a UNIQUE constraint. Then, in table CourseBookings, you can just store a foreign key to that column.
This would give you a simple and efficient way to relate one table to the other, while avoiding duplicating information across tables (this actually leaves you with just 3 columns in CourseBookins).
In relational database design it is usually a good practice to create such a primary key on most tables. You could consider adding one to other tables too.
Example :
CREATE TABLE CourseDetails (
id int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
CourseStartDate int NOT NULL,
...
CONSTRAINT PK_CourseDetails UNIQUE (CourseStartDate,Location,courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES Courses(courseId)
);
CREATE TABLE CourseBookings (
id int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
courseDetailId INT NOT NULL,
GuestNo int,
CONSTRAINT PK_CourseBookings UNIQUE (courseDetailId,GuestNo),
FOREIGN KEY (courseDetailId) REFERENCES CourseDetails(id),
FOREIGN KEY (GuestNo) REFERENCES Guest(GuestNo)
);
PS, just in case :
FOREIGN KEY (GuestNo) REFERENCES Guest(GuestNo)
Does table Guest exists in your schema (you did not show the CREATE TABLE for it) ?
I am getting ERROR CODE 1215: cannot add foreign key constraint for the child table.
Parent table has composite primary key. I want to use that composite primary key as foreign key in the child table.
Please guide me.
PARENT TABLE
CREATE TABLE health.procedures(
Specialty varchar(40),
Procedure_Name varchar(60),
PRIMARY KEY (Procedure_Name, Specialty)
);
CHILD TABLE
CREATE TABLE health.procedureProvided(
specialization varchar(40),
procedure_name varchar(60),
Insurance_ID int REFERENCES health.insurance (idInsurance),
Hospital_ID int REFERENCES health.hospital (idHospital) ,
Doctor_ID int REFERENCES health.doctor( idDoctor) ,
CONSTRAINT procedures_fk foreign key (specialization,procedure_name)references health.procedures(Specialty,Procedure_Name) ,
PRIMARY KEY (specialization, procedure_name, Insurance_ID, Hospital_ID, Doctor_ID)
);
You are specifying a foreign key that is invalid. Your primary key is procedure_name in health.procedure, but you are trying to create a composite foreign key in health.procedureProvided. You can't create that as a foreign key as the column Specialty in the master table is not part of the primary. A foreign key must contain all the columns in the contributing table's primary key but cannot contain values that are not in that primary key. You have three real options. 1. Specify Specialty as being a component of the primary key in procedure. Unfortunately that means the procedure will not necessarily by unique, it will be unique by specialty. 2. add a surrogate key - a system generated sequence value, uuid or something else (timestamps are not recommended). 3. Create validation tables valid_procedures and valid_specialties and use the table health.procedure as an intersection between those to provide valid procedures and correlated specialties and then you could migrate the entire primary key.
Question:
Why am I getting errors when trying to alter a table with a foreign key constraint?
Details:
I have 1 table, HSTORY which I use as a base table for all other specific history tables (ie. USER_HISTORY, BROWSER_HISTORY, PICTURE_HISTORY...). I have also included the PICTURE and USER tables as they get called as well.
HISTORY table:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS HISTORY
(
ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
VIEWERID INT NOT NULL ,
VIEWDATE TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW(),
PRIMARY KEY (ID),
FOREIGN KEY (VIEWERID) REFERENCES USER(ID)
)
engine=innodb;
USER table: (in case anyone is curious)
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS USER
(
ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
)
engine=innodb;
PICTURE table: (in case anyone is curious)
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS PICTURE
(
ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
)
engine=innodb;
PICTURE_HISTORY table:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS PICTURE_HISTORY LIKE HISTORY;
ALTER TABLE PICTURE_HISTORY
ADD FOREIGN KEY (FOREIGNID) REFERENCES PICTURE(ID);
However, when I do this, I get:
Key column 'FOREIGNID' doesn't exist in table
I take this to mean that I have to first create FOREIGNID, but in many of the examples on SO, the above should work. Anyone know why this is occurring?
Thanks to Michael for pointing out my mistake. I can't actually make a foreign key unless the column already exists. If instead I issue these two commands, the foreign key constraint is created:
ALTER TABLE PICTURE_HISTORY
ADD COLUMN FOREIGNID INT NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE PICTURE_HISTORY
ADD FOREIGN KEY (FOREIGNID) REFERENCES PICTURE(ID);
You can combine commands for mysql using a comma, like so:
ALTER TABLE PICTURE_HISTORY
ADD COLUMN FOREIGNID INT NOT NULL,
ADD FOREIGN KEY (FOREIGNID) REFERENCES PICTURE(ID);