Re: are foreign keys realized as indexes? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: are foreign keys realized as indexes?
Date
Msg-id 556.1178633204@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: are foreign keys realized as indexes?  (Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org>)
List pgsql-general
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> writes:
> On Tue, May 08, 2007 at 02:14:54PM +0200, Felix Kater wrote:
>> There is *no complete* substitute for foreign keys by using *indexes*
>> since I'd loose the referencial integrity (whereas for unique contraints
>> there *is* a full replacement using indexes)?

> A unique index is not a "substitute" for a unique constraint, they're
> exactly the same thing. If you drop your constraint and create a unique
> index, you're back where you started. You neither added nor removed
> anything.

Well, actually you added or removed a pg_constraint entry associated
with the index ... but either way it's the unique index that really
does the work of enforcing uniqueness.

            regards, tom lane

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