Are foreign keys mandatory in MySQL? - php

Do I need to assign a foreign key in MySQL?
(Navicat for MySQL, PHP, I'm programming a social network for sake of fun)

See this http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.php/2248101/Referential-Integrity-in-MySQL.htm
You can 'define' a foreign key in any
MySQL table type (including the
default MyISAM table type), but they
do not actually do anything - they are
only used to enforce referential
integrity in InnoDB tables.
The OP should be excused to think it is an "imaginary" concept.

Related

MySQL relation without using foreign key references

I have question about making relation between two tables in mysql. I create table with column which is foreign key, but I dont use foreign key references keyword. I connect tables in code(php/asp.net). I dont know if it is good habit? Thanks for your help.
It's generally seen as a good habit to create a foreign key constraint as it will enforce data integrity between the two columns.
Yes, you can have 100% valid data in your database without using any foreign key constraints at all, but implementing them will make it impossible for a flawed update, delete, or insert to violate the foreign constraint between them in the future.

MySQL #1215 - Cannot add foreign key constraint [duplicate]

I am trying to import a .sql file and its failing on creating tables.
Here's the query that fails:
CREATE TABLE `data` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
`value` varchar(15) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`,`name`),
CONSTRAINT `data_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`id`) REFERENCES `keywords` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
I exported the .sql from the same database, I dropped all the tables and now im trying to import it, why is it failing?
MySQL: Can't create table './dbname/data.frm' (errno: 150)
From the MySQL - FOREIGN KEY Constraints Documentation:
If you re-create a table that was dropped, it must have a definition that conforms to the foreign key constraints referencing it. It must have the correct column names and types, and it must have indexes on the referenced keys, as stated earlier. If these are not satisfied, MySQL returns Error 1005 and refers to Error 150 in the error message, which means that a foreign key constraint was not correctly formed. Similarly, if an ALTER TABLE fails due to Error 150, this means that a foreign key definition would be incorrectly formed for the altered table.
Error 150 means you have a problem with your foreign key. Possibly the key on the foreign table isn't the exact same type?
You can get the actual error message by running SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS; and then looking for LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR in the output.
Source: answer from another user in a similar question
Data types must match exactly. If you are dealing with varchar types, the tables must use the same collation.
I think all these answers while correct are misleading to the question.
The actual answer is this before you start a restore, if you're restoring a dump file with foreign keys:
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
because naturally the restore will be creating some constraints before the foreign table even exists.
In some cases, you may encounter this error message if there are different engines between the relating tables. For example, a table may be using InnoDB while the other uses MyISAM. Both need to be same
Error no. 150 means a foreign key constraint failure. You are probably creating this table before the table the foreign key depends on (table keywords). Create that table first and it should work fine.
If it doesn't, remove the foreign key statement and add it after the table is created - you will get a more meaningful error message about the specific constraint failure.
There are quite a few things that can cause errno 150, so for people searching this topic, here is what I think is a close to exhaustive list (source Causes of Errno 150):
For errno 150 or errno 121, simply typing in SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS, there is a section called "LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR". Under that it will give you a very helpful error message, which typically will tell you right away what is the matter. You need SUPER privileges to run it, so if you don't have that, you'll just have to test out the following scenarios.
1) Data Types Don't Match: The types of the columns have to be the same
2) Parent Columns Not Indexed (Or Indexed in Wrong Order)
3) Column Collations Don't Match
4) Using SET NULL on a NOT NULL Column
5) Table Collations Don't Match: even if the column collations match, on some MySQL versions this can be a problem.
6) Parent Column Doesn't Actually Exist In Parent Table. Check spelling (and perhaps a space at the beginning or end of column)
7) One of the indexes on one of the columns is incomplete, or the column is too long for a complete index. Note that MySQL (unless you tweak it) has a maximum single column key length of 767 bytes (this corresponds to a varchar(255) UTF column)
In case you get an errno 121, here are a couple of causes:
1) The constraint name you chose is already taken
2) On some systems if there is a case difference in your statement and table names. This can bite you if you go from one server to another that have different case handling rules.
Sometimes MySQL is just super stupid - i can understand the reason cause of foreign-keys.. but in my case, i have just dropped the whole database, and i still get the error... why? i mean, there is no database anymore... and the sql-user i'm using has no access to any other db's on the server... i mean, the server is "empty" for the current user and i still get this error? Sorry but i guess MySQL is lying to me... but i can deal with it :) Just add these two lines of SQL around your fucky statement:
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;
# some code that gives you errno: 150
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;
Now the sql should be executed... If you really have a foreign-key problem, it would show up to you by the line where you will enable the checks again - this will fail then.. but my server is just quiet :)
usually, the mismatch between foreign key & primary key causes the
error:150.
The foreign key must have the same datatype as the primary key. Also, if the primary key is unsigned then the foreign key must also be unsigned.
I had same issue. It was related to table's column Collation and Character Set.
Make sure Character Set and Collation must be same for both columns on two tables. If you want to set a foreign key on that.
Example- If you put foreign key on userID column of userImage table referencing userID column of users table.Then Collation must be same that is utf8_general_ci and Character set utf8 for both columns of tables. Generally when you create a table mysql takes these two configuration from server settings.
After cruising through the answers above, and experimenting a bit, this is an effective way to solve Foreign Key errors in MySQL (1005 - error 150).
For the foreign key to be properly created, all MySQL asks for is:
All referenced keys MUST have either PRIMARY or UNIQUE index.
Referencing Column again MUST have identical data type to the Referenced column.
Satisfy these requirements and all will be well.
I experienced this error when have ported Windows application to Linux. In Windows, database table names are case-insensitive, and in Linux they are case-sensitive, probably because of file system difference. So, on Windows table Table1 is the same as table1, and in REFERENCES both table1 and Table1 works. On Linux, when application used table1 instead of Table1 when it created database structure I saw error #150; when I made correct character case in Table1 references, it started to work on Linux too. So, if nothing else helps, make you sure that in REFERENCES you use correct character case in table name when you on Linux.
Change the engines of your tables, only innoDB supports foreign keys
If the PK table is created in one CHARSET and then you create FK table in another CHARSET..then also you might get this error...I too got this error but after changing the charset to PK charset then it got executed without errors
create table users
(
------------
-------------
)DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
create table Emp
(
---------
---------
---------
FOREIGN KEY (userid) REFERENCES users(id) on update cascade on delete cascade)ENGINE=InnoDB, DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
This error can occur if two tables have a reference, for example, one table is Student and another table is Education, and we want the Education table to have a foreign key reference of Student table. In this instance the column data type for both tables should be same, otherwise it will generate an error.
In most of the cases the problem is because of the ENGINE dIfference .If the parent is created by InnoDB then the referenced tables supposed to be created by MyISAM & vice versa
In my case. I had problems with engine and charset because my Hosting server change settings and my new tables was MyISAM but my old tables are InnoDB. Just i changed.
Please make sure both your primary key column and referenced column have the same data types and attributes (unsigned, binary, unsigned zerofill etc).
A real edge case is where you have used an MySQL tool, (Sequel Pro in my case) to rename a database. Then created a database with the same name.
This kept foreign key constraints to the same database name, so the renamed database (e.g. my_db_renamed) had foreign key constraints in the newly created database (my_db)
Not sure if this is a bug in Sequel Pro, or if some use case requires this behaviour, but it cost me best part of a morning :/
The column of PARENT table to which you are referring to from child table has to be unique. If it is not, cause an error no 150.
I had the same error. In my case the reason for the error was that I had a ON DELETE SET NULL statement in the constraint while the field on which I put the constraint in its definition had a NOT NULL statement. Allowing NULL in the field solved the problem.
I faced this kind of issue while creating DB from the textfile.
mysql -uroot -padmin < E:\important\sampdb\createdb.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\create_student.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\create_absence.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\insert_student.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\insert_absence.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\load_student.sql
mysql -uroot -padmin sampdb < E:\important\sampdb\load_absence.sql
I just wrote the above lines in Create.batand run the bat file.
My mistake is in the sequence order of execution in my sql files. I tried to create table with primary key and also foreign key. While its running it will search for the reference table but tables are not there.
So it will return those kind of error.
If you creating tables with foreign key then check the reference
tables were present or not. And also check the name of the reference
tables and fields.
I had a similar problem but mine was because i was adding a new field to an existing table that had data , and the new field was referencing another field from the parent table and also had the Defination of NOT NULL and without any DEFAULT VALUES. - I found out the reason things were not working was because
My new field needed to autofill the blank fields with a value from the parent table on each record, before the constraint could be applied. Every time the constraint is applied it needs to leave the Integrity of the table data intact. Implementing the Constraint (Foreign Key) yet there were some database records that did not have the values from the parent table would mean the data is corrupt so MySQL would NEVER ENFORCE YOUR CONSTRAINT
It is important to remember that under normal circumstances if you planned your database well ahead of time, and implemented constraints before data insertion this particular scenario would be avoided
The easier Approach to avoid this gotcha is to
Save your database tables data
Truncate the table data (and table artifacts i.e indexes etc)
Apply the Constraints
Import Your Data
I Hope this helps someone
Create the table without foreign key, then set the foreign key separately.
Perhaps this will help? The definition of the primary key column should be exactly the same as the foreign key column.
Make sure that the all tables can support foreign key - InnoDB engine
I had a similar problem when dumping a Django mysql database with a single table. I was able to fix the problem by dumping the database to a text file, moving the table in question to the end of the file using emacs and importing the modified sql dump file into the new instance.
HTH Uwe
I've corrected the problem by making the variable accept null
ALTER TABLE `ajout_norme`
CHANGE `type_norme_code` `type_norme_code` VARCHAR( 2 ) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NULL
I got the same problem when executing a series of MySQL commands. Mine occurs during creating a table when referencing a foreign key to other table which was not created yet. It's the sequence of table existence before referencing.
The solution: Create the parent tables first before creating a child table which has a foreign key.

Why to use Foreign Key Constraints?

I am working on a PHP application which Db design was created by another guy who added FK constraints(On Cascade delete etc) between tables. So far what I am used to do is to put a FK in another table. For instance we have two tables:
Users
ID
Name
CountryID
Countries
ID
Name
At application Level I will create two Separate INSERTs calls. If FK is present, then what change do I need to make at my application level?
You need to make sure that the row you reference with the FK exists before you create the row in the other table.
… but you are probably doing this already as that is the logical order to create the rows.
Foreign keys enforce referential integrity.
These constraints guarantee that a row in a table order_details with a field order_id referencing an orders table will never have an order_id value that doesn't exist in the orders table.
Foreign keys aren't required to have a working relational database (in fact MySQL's default storage engine doesn't support FKs), but they are definitely essential to avoid broken relationships and orphan rows (ie. referential integrity). The ability to enforce referential integrity at the database level is required for the C in ACID to stand.

Does Doctrine 2 required foreign keys to be defined?

I have a relational database, however, there aren't any foreign keys defined, and many of the tables are not InnoDB, so can't support foreign keys anyway.
I would like to start experimenting with Doctrine on this database, but there is a lot of reference to foreign keys in the documentation, so I'm not sure if this is possible.
I'm anxious about diving in and changing table storage engines to InnoDB and defining tons of foreign keys, because I don't want to impact performance if I don't have to.
Does Doctrine require foreign keys to be defined in order to manage associations between entities?
If it isn't required but optional, what features of Doctrine do I sacrifice if I don't have foreign keys defined?
There is no reason for you to switch to InnoDB for Doctrine.
No.
I find the Doctrine's CLI tools for updating and generating the database schema will often try to generate the SQL with foreign keys. You can manually set up the database, or modify the code it generates, to avoid this.
So, no, it is not a problem.
If you define some Associations mapping for your entities it may convert to foreign keys by doctrine automatically
http://docs.doctrine-project.org/en/latest/reference/association-mapping.html
i you want those foreign keys in your db too you have to use doctrine CLI for creating your schema
for more info about using doctrine cli :
http://docs.doctrine-project.org/en/latest/reference/tools.html

MySQL foreign key relations vs mysql_insert_id to relate tables

This is for a sort of proof of concept draft to get things working, but don't want to have completely crap code. For my database, I tried to get true foreign key relations going using innoDB, but couldn't get it.
Instead of using foreign keys, I decided to just pull mysql_insert_id() after inserts, saving it as a variable, then putting that variable into the related table.
Is this horrible? Everything seems to work well, and I'm able to connect and relate ID's as needed. What benefits would using foreign keys give me over my method (besides updates/deletes cascading)?
To create a relation (master->detail), you have to always supply the keys by yourself, either using mysql_insert_id, natural keys or key generated by your applications. The FOREIGN KEY is not going to make that work for you.
What FOREIGN KEY does is
Helping you enforce the relationship/the integrity of your data (so the "detail" record does not point to an invalid parent)
Handles deletion or key alterations of master records (ON DELETE ..., ON UPDATE ...).
It's also creating an index in your "detail"-table for the "master_id"-row if it doesn't exist yet (okay, you could also do that without FOREIGN KEY)
Has also some kind of documenting purpose for example an ERM-tool could reengineer the relationship model from your schema (okay, this point is a slight long shot)
The cost of adding the FOREIGN KEY constraint statement is small compared to its benefits.

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