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Constraints in SQL

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Siri Reddy
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10 views10 pages

Constraints in SQL

Uploaded by

Siri Reddy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CONSTRAINTS IN SQL

BY: SIRI
RAMIDI
CONSTRAINTS
 Sql constraints are used to specify rules for the data in a table.

 Constraints are used to limit the type of data that can go into a table.

 This ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data in the table.

 If there is any violation between the constraint and the data action, the
action is aborted.

 Constraints can be column level or table level. Column level constraints apply
to a column, and table level constraints apply to the whole table.
The following constraints are commonly used in SQL:
NOT NULL constraint :
 The NOT NULL constraint enforces a column to NOT accept NULL values.
 This enforces a field to always contain a value, which means that you cannot insert a new
record, or update a record without adding a value to this field.
Example:
CREATE TABLE persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
firstname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
age int
);
UNIQUE constraint:
 The UNIQUE constraint ensures that all values in a column are different.
 Both the unique and primary key constraints provide a guarantee for uniqueness for a column or set
of columns.
 A primary key constraint automatically has a unique constraint.
 However, you can have many unique constraints per table, but only one primary key constraint per
table.

Example: The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "ID" column when the "Persons" table is
created:

CREATE TABLE persons (


ID int NOT NULL UNIQUE,
lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
firstname varchar(255),
age int
);
PRIMARY KEY constraint:
 PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a table.
 Primary keys must contain unique values, and cannot contain null values.
 A table can have only one primary key; and in the table, this primary key can consist of single or

multiple columns (fields).


Example:
CREATE TABLE persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
firstname varchar(255),
age int,
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
FOREIGN KEY constraint:
 The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy links between tables.
 A foreign key is a field (or collection of fields) in one table, that refers to the primary key in
another table.
 The table with the foreign key is called the child table, and the table with the primary key is
called the referenced or parent table.

• Look at the following two tables:

Persons table Orders


PersonI LastNa
Table
FirstNa Age OrderID OrderNum PersonID
D me me ber
1 Hansen Ola 30 1 77895 3
2 Svendso Tove 23 2 44678 3
n
3 22456 2
3 Petterse Kari 20
4 24562 1
n
 The "PersonID" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the "Persons" table.
 The "PersonID" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders" table.

Example: The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "personid" column when the "orders"
table is created:

CREATE TABLE orders (


orderid int NOT NULL,
ordernumber int NOT NULL,
personid int,
PRIMARY KEY (orderid),
FOREIGN KEY (personid) REFERENCES persons(personid)
);
CHECK constraint:
 The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in a column.
 If you define a check constraint on a column it will allow only certain values for this column.
 If you define a check constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain columns based on values in
other columns in the row.
Example: The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "Age" column when the "Persons" table is
created. The CHECK constraint ensures that the age of a person must be 18, or older:

CREATE TABLE persons (


ID int NOT NULL,
lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
firstname varchar(255),
age int,
CHECK (age>=18)
);
DEFAULT constraint:
 The DEFAULT constraint is used to set a default value for a column.
 The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is specified.

Example: The following SQL sets a DEFAULT value for the "City" column when the "Persons" table is
created:

CREATE TABLE persons (


ID int NOT NULL,
lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
firstname varchar(255),
age int,
city varchar(255) DEFAULT 'sandnes'
);
THANK YOU

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