SQL FOREIGN KEY

SQL FOREIGN KEY

A FOREIGN KEY in one table points to a PRIMARY KEY in another table.
The "Persons" table:
P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The "Orders" table:
O_Id OrderNo P_Id
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1

Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders" table.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy links between tables.

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
O_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)


To DROP a FOREIGN KEY Constraint

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders

SQL PRIMARY KEY
The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.
Primary keys must contain unique values.

A primary key column cannot contain NULL values.
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)
)