Table Constraints

David Berry
http://buildingbettersoftware.blogspot.com/
 Table Constraints Overview

 Table constraints
 Define rules your data must follow

 Examples
 Every student must have a unique student id number
 Every course must be associated with a department
Module Outline

Primary Keys

Foreign Keys

Check Constraints
 Primary Keys

 Uniquely identifies each row in a table

 Can be defined over one or more

columns

 Cannot contain a NULL value in any

primary key column
 Primary Key Types

Natural Key Surrogate Key

Combination of naturally
A unique value is generated
occurring columns that form
for each row
a unique key
The real reason I favor surrogate keys….

I am a terrible typist!
 Primary Key Definition

CREATE TABLE departments

(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
department_name VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL
);
 Primary Key Using Constraint Clause

CREATE TABLE courses

(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
course_number NUMBER(3,0) NOT NULL,
course_title VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL,
course_description VARCHAR2(512) NOT NULL,
credits NUMBER(3,1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_courses
PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number)
);
 Add a Primary Key to an Existing Table

ALTER TABLE courses

CONSTRAINT pk_courses
ADD PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number);
 Primary Key Recommendations

Make sure every table Values of a primary

has a primary key key should be
defined immutable
 Oracle ROWID

 Represents the address of the row in the table

SQL> SELECT rowid, zip_code, city, state

2 FROM zip_codes;

ROWID ZIP_C CITY ST

------------------ ----- ------------------------------ --
AAAXoNAAGAAAJzeAAA 11201 Brooklyn NY
AAAXoNAAGAAAJzeAAB 75201 Dallas TX
AAAXoNAAGAAAJzeAAC 80401 Golden CO
AAAXoNAAGAAAJzeAAD 92101 San Diego CA
 Foreign Keys
Put the relational in relational databases
 What Is a Foreign Key

For a record to exist in the COURSES table, it must contain a valid

DEPARTMENT_CODE value from the DEPARTMENTS table
 Defining a Foreign Key

CREATE TABLE courses

(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
course_number NUMBER(3,0) NOT NULL,
course_title VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL,
course_description VARCHAR2(512) NOT NULL,
credits NUMBER(3,1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_courses
PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number),
CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code
FOREIGN KEY (department_code)
REFERENCES departments (department_code),
);
 Add a Foreign Key to an Existing Table

ALTER TABLE courses

CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code
ADD FOREIGN KEY (department_code)
REFERENCES departments (department_code);
 On Delete Cascade
CREATE TABLE courses
(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
course_number NUMBER(3,0) NOT NULL,
course_title VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL,
course_description VARCHAR2(512) NOT NULL,
credits NUMBER(3,1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_courses
PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number),
CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code
FOREIGN KEY (department_code)
REFERENCES departments (department_code)
ON DELETE CASCADE
);
 On Delete Cascade

departments
department_code name
MA Math

PH Physics

CS Computer Science
courses
department_code course_number Title
MA 101 Calculus 1

DELETE FROM departments MA 102 Calculus 2

WHERE department_code = ‘PH’;
PH 101 Physics 1

PH 102 Physics 2

CS 101 Intro to
Programming
 On Delete Cascade

 Without on delete cascade

DELETE FROM courses WHERE department_code = ‘PH’;

DELETE FROM departments WHERE department_code = ‘PH’;
COMMIT;

 To delete a primary key value, no child records can exist

 Deferred Constraints
CREATE TABLE courses
(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
course_number NUMBER(3,0) NOT NULL,
course_title VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL,
course_description VARCHAR2(512) NOT NULL,
credits NUMBER(3,1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_courses
PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number),
CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code
FOREIGN KEY (department_code)
REFERENCES departments (department_code)
DEFERRABLE
INITIALLY IMMEDIATE
-- INITIALLY DEFERRABLE
);
 Using a Deferred Constraint

departments set constraint

fk_courses_depatment_code deferred;
department_code name
MA Math
UPDATE departments
SET department_code = ‘CO’
PH Physics WHERE department_code = ‘CS’;
CS Computer Science
UPDATE courses
SET department_code = ‘CO’
WHERE department_code = ‘CS’;
COMMIT;

courses
department_code course_number Title
MA 101 Calculus 1

MA 102 Calculus 2

PH 101 Physics 1

PH 102 Physics 2

CS 101 Intro to
Programming
 Foreign Key Options Summary

 Why are you having to cascade deletes or defer constraints?

 One time cleanup or typical business operation

 Using on delete cascade

 Is deleting data really the correct decision?
 Can the parent record be marked ‘inactive’

 Using deferred constraints

 Consider a surrogate key for a primary key
 Check Constraints

Validate the format of

Check that a value is Compare two values
a value using a
within a given range in different columns
regular expression
 Check If Value is Within a Range

CREATE TABLE courses

(
department_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
course_number NUMBER(3,0) NOT NULL,
course_title VARCHAR2(64) NOT NULL,
course_description VARCHAR2(512) NOT NULL,
credits NUMBER(3,1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_courses
PRIMARY KEY (department_code, course_number),
CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code
FOREIGN KEY (department_code)
REFERENCES departments (department_code),
CONSTRAINT ck_courses_course_number
CHECK (course_number BETWEEN 100 AND 999)
);
 Check If Value is Within a Domain

CREATE TABLE states

(
state_code VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
state_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
region VARCHAR2(2) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_states
PRIMARY KEY (state_code),
CONSTRAINT ck_state_regions
CHECK (region IN (‘NE’, ‘SE’, ‘MW’, ‘SC’, ‘NW’, ‘SW’))
);
 Emulate a Boolean Column

CREATE TABLE students

(
student_id NUMBER(6) NOT NULL,
first_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
last_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
email_address VARCHAR2(128) NOT NULL,
likes_ice_cream NUMBER(1) NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_students PRIMARY KEY (student_id),
CONSTRAINT ck_studens_ice_cream
CHECK (likes_ice_cream IN (0,1))
);
 Compare Two Values

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
order_id NUMBER(9) NOT NULL,
customer_id NUMBER(6) NOT NULL,
order_date DATE NOT NULL,
ship_date DATE NULL,
order_status VARCHAR2(1) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_orders
PRIMARY KEY (order_id),
CONSTRAINT ck_orders_order_ship_date
CHECK (ship_date > order_date)
);
 Validate Format Using a Regular Expression

CREATE TABLE zip_codes

(
zip_code VARCHAR2(5) NOT NULL,
city VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
state_code VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_codes
PRIMARY KEY (state_code),
CONSTRAINT ck_zip_code_format
CHECK (REGEXP_LIKE (zip_code, '^[0-9]{5}$') )
);
 Add a Constraint to an Existing Table

ALTER TABLE zip_codes

ADD CONSTRAINT ck_zip_codes_format
CHECK (REGEXP_LIKE (zip_code, '^[0-9]{5}$') );
 Disabling and Enabling Constraints

Disabling a constraint
ALTER TABLE courses
DISABLE CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code;

Enabling a constraint
ALTER TABLE courses
ENABLE CONSTRAINT fk_courses_department_code;
 Constraints and Data Integrity

Multiple options are

Data integrity is critical
available for enforcing
to your business data
data integrity
 Why Use Database Constraints

• Required for many business functions

Clean Data • Can reduce the amount of coding
needed to deal with “bad data”

Consistent
• All applications must comply with
Enforcement of
database constraints
Constraints
Enforcing Constraints in Your Application

App is • Faster feedback on invalid

closer to data
user • Less frustrating to user

General • Mitigate security concerns

good • Reduce crashes due to
practice invalid data
 Constraints Strategy

Database Constraints
• One set of tools in an overall strategy
• Make use of all tools available

Validate both in Database and Applications

• Applications: provide immediate user feedback
• Database: consistently enforce rules across all applications

Performance Impacts
• Constraints can be checked in milliseconds
• Bad data take s along time to clean up
 Summary

Check
Primary Keys Foreign Keys
Constraints