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Learn how to create, alter and drop FOREIGN KEY constraints in MySQL. A FOREIGN KEY is a field that refers to the PRIMARY KEY in another table and prevents invalid data.
Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about the MySQL Foreign Key constraint and how to create, drop and disable a foreign key constraint. MySQL Foreign Key Introduction. A foreign key is a column (or set of columns) that establishes a relationship between data in two tables.
To add a foreign key (grade_id) to an existing table (users), follow the following steps: ALTER TABLE users ADD grade_id SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0; ALTER TABLE users ADD CONSTRAINT fk_grade_id FOREIGN KEY (grade_id) REFERENCES grades(id);
The essential syntax for a defining a foreign key constraint in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement includes the following: [CONSTRAINT [symbol]] FOREIGN KEY. [index_name] (col_name, ...) REFERENCES tbl_name (col_name,...) [ON DELETE reference_option] [ON UPDATE reference_option] reference_option:
The FOREIGN KEY constraint is a key used to link two tables together. A FOREIGN KEY is a field (or collection of fields) in one table that refers to the PRIMARY KEY in another table. The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "PersonID" column when the "Orders" table is created:
Here is the basic syntax of defining a foreign key constraint in the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement: [CONSTRAINT constraint_name] FOREIGN KEY [foreign_key_name] (column_name, ...) REFERENCES parent_table(colunm_name,...) [ON DELETE reference_option] [ON UPDATE reference_option] Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
Create the parent and child tables using the following SQL statements: CREATE TABLE parent ( id INT NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (id) ) ENGINE=INNODB; CREATE TABLE child ( id INT, parent_id INT, INDEX par_ind (parent_id), FOREIGN KEY (parent_id) REFERENCES parent(id) ) ENGINE=INNODB;
