Thread: Mechanics of Update:Cascade

Mechanics of Update:Cascade

From
beyaRecords - The home Urban music
Date:
Hi,
could someone please explain to me the mechanics of an UpDate:Cascade? 
Delete:Cascade I fully understand but not Update. I have 2 tables A and 
B. On B I have created a foreign key on user_id in both B and A for 
Update and Delete cascade. If I delete from A it deletes all from B. If 
I update A what happens in B?

many thanks



Re: Mechanics of Update:Cascade

From
Stephan Szabo
Date:
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004, beyaRecords - The home Urban music wrote:

> Hi,
> could someone please explain to me the mechanics of an UpDate:Cascade?
> Delete:Cascade I fully understand but not Update. I have 2 tables A and
> B. On B I have created a foreign key on user_id in both B and A for
> Update and Delete cascade. If I delete from A it deletes all from B. If
> I update A what happens in B?

Basically it means that if you update the referenced key in A, the
associated referencing values in B changes as well so as to attempt to
keep the associations the same.

Here's an example:

sszabo=# create table a(a int primary key, b int);
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "a_pkey"
for table "a"
CREATE TABLE
sszabo=# create table b(a_key int references a on update cascade, b int);
CREATE TABLE
sszabo=# insert into a values (3, 4);
INSERT 535937 1
sszabo=# insert into a values (4, 5);
INSERT 535938 1
sszabo=# insert into b values (3,104);
INSERT 535939 1
sszabo=# insert into b values (4,105);
INSERT 535940 1
sszabo=# select * from a;a | b
---+---3 | 44 | 5
(2 rows)

sszabo=# select * from b;a_key |  b
-------+-----    3 | 104    4 | 105
(2 rows)

sszabo=# update a set a=a+100;
UPDATE 2
sszabo=# select * from a; a  | b
-----+---103 | 4104 | 5
(2 rows)

sszabo=# select * from b;a_key |  b
-------+-----  103 | 104  104 | 105
(2 rows)



Re: Mechanics of Update:Cascade

From
Richard Huxton
Date:
On Saturday 31 January 2004 10:50, beyaRecords - The home Urban music wrote:
> Hi,
> could someone please explain to me the mechanics of an UpDate:Cascade?
> Delete:Cascade I fully understand but not Update. I have 2 tables A and
> B. On B I have created a foreign key on user_id in both B and A for
> Update and Delete cascade. If I delete from A it deletes all from B. If
> I update A what happens in B?

The column should be changed there too. For example, if we have
B.user_id => A.user_id and change A.user_id from 100 to 200 then the same 
should happen in B too.

--  Richard Huxton Archonet Ltd