Hello,
is there any best practice method how to create a foreign key that only allows values from those rows in the referenced
tablethat fulfill an additional condition?
First I present two pseudo solutions to clarify what I would like to do. They are no real solutions, because they are
neitherSQL standard nor postgresql compliant. The third solution actually works, but I do not like it for reason I will
explainlater:
CREATE TABLE parent ( id SERIAL, discriminator INT NOT NULL, attribute1 VARCHAR, ...
);
Pseudo solution 1 (with a hard-coded value):
CREATE TABLE child ( id SERIAL NOT NULL, parent_id INT NOT NULL, attribute2 VARCHAR, ..., FOREIGN KEY ( parent_id, 42 )
REFERENCESparent ( id, discriminator )
);
Pseudo solution 2 (with a nested SELECT statement):
CREATE TABLE child ( id SERIAL NOT NULL, parent_id INT NOT NULL, attribute2 VARCHAR, ..., FOREIGN KEY ( parent_id )
REFERENCES( SELECT * FROM parent WHERE discriminator = 42 ) ( id )
);
Working solution:
CREATE TABLE child ( id SERIAL NOT NULL, parent_id INT NOT NULL, parent_discriminator INT NOT NULL DEFAULT 42,
attribute2VARCHAR, ..., FOREIGN KEY ( parent_id, parent_discriminator ) REFERENCES parent ( id, discriminator ), CHECK
(parent_discriminator = 42 )
);
The third solution work, but I do not like it, because it adds an extra column to the table that always contains a
constantvalue for the sole purpose to be able to use this column in the FOREIGN KEY clause. On the one hand this is a
wasteof memory and on the other hand it is not immediately obvious to an outside person what the purpose of this extra
columnand CHECK clause is. I am convinced that any administrator who follows me might get into problems to understand
whatthis is supposed to be. I would like to have a more self-explanatory solution like 1 or 2.
I wonder if there is something better.
Best regards, Matthias
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthias Nagel
Willy-Andreas-Allee 1, Zimmer 506
76131 Karlsruhe
Telefon: +49-721-8695-1506
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e-Mail: matthias.h.nagel@gmail.com
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Skype: nagmat84
