INSERT where not exists with foreign key - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Chuck Martin
Subject INSERT where not exists with foreign key
Date
Msg-id CAFw6=U3Nh09ynmu+J950izZtpqRHP4znK1qYbR0meHyMBHyd8A@mail.gmail.com
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Responses Re: INSERT where not exists with foreign key
Re: INSERT where not exists with foreign key
List pgsql-general
My Google foo isn't working on this question, probably because I don't understand the question well enough. I'm using Postgres 11.3 on Centos 7. I'm trying to insert a record in table A with a foreign key to table B, but only where there is not already a foreign key in A to B. So assume this simple structure:

Table A
A.key    Integer
A.something     text
A.Bkey     Integer [foreign key to table B, column B.key

Table B (or View C)
B.key    Integer
[more columns]

Thinking that it might simplify matters, I created a view to table B that only includes records with no foreign key in Table A. But still, after reading the documentation and Googling, I can't work out what seems like it should be simple. Among the many things that didn't work is:

INSERT INTO A(something,A.Bkey)

VALUES ('text',
              (SELECT C.key FROM C)

But this didn't work because the subquery returned more than one value. Of course I want it to return all values, but just one per insert. 

I can do this outside of Postgres, but would like to learn how to do this with SQL. 

Chuck Martin
Avondale Software

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