Foreign Keys

Creating a table with a foreign key

In this example we have an existing table, SuperHeros.

This table contains a primary key ID.

We will add a new table in order to store the powers of each super hero:

CREATE TABLE HeroPowers
(
    ID int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    Name nvarchar(MAX) NOT NULL,
    HeroId int REFERENCES SuperHeros(ID)
)

The column HeroId is a foreign key to the table SuperHeros.

Foreign Keys explained

Foreign Keys constraints ensure data integrity, by enforcing that values in one table must match values in another table.

An example of where a foreign key is required is: In a university, a course must belong to a department. Code for the this scenario is:

CREATE TABLE Department (
    Dept_Code        CHAR (5)     PRIMARY KEY,
    Dept_Name        VARCHAR (20) UNIQUE
);

Insert values with the following statement:

INSERT INTO Department VALUES ('CS205', 'Computer Science');

The following table will contain the information of the subjects offered by the Computer science branch:

CREATE TABLE Programming_Courses (
    Dept_Code       CHAR(5),
    Prg_Code        CHAR(9) PRIMARY KEY,
    Prg_Name        VARCHAR (50) UNIQUE,
    FOREIGN KEY (Dept_Code) References Department(Dept_Code)
);

(The data type of the Foreign Key must match the datatype of the referenced key.)

The Foreign Key constraint on the column Dept_Code allows values only if they already exist in the referenced table, Department. This means that if you try to insert the following values:

INSERT INTO Programming_Courses Values ('CS300', 'FDB-DB001', 'Database Systems');

the database will raise a Foreign Key violation error, because CS300 does not exist in the Department table. But when you try a key value that exists:

INSERT INTO Programming_Courses VALUES ('CS205', 'FDB-DB001', 'Database Systems');
INSERT INTO Programming_Courses VALUES ('CS205', 'DB2-DB002', 'Database Systems II');

then the database allows these values.

A few tips for using Foreign Keys

A Foreign Key must reference a UNIQUE (or PRIMARY) key in the parent table.
Entering a NULL value in a Foreign Key column does not raise an error.
Foreign Key constraints can reference tables within the same database.
Foreign Key constraints can refer to another column in the same table (self-reference).