Foreign Keys with cascade delete

A foreign key means that values in one table must also appear in another table.

The referenced table is called the parent table while the table with the foreign key is called the child table . The foreign key in the child table will generally reference a primary key in the parent table.

A foreign key with a cascade delete means that if a record in the parent table is deleted, then the corresponding records in the child table with automatically be deleted. This is called a cascade delete.

A foreign key with a cascade delete can be defined in either a CREATE TABLE

statement or an ALTER TABLE statement.

Using a CREATE TABLE statement

The syntax for creating a foreign key using a CREATE TABLE statement is:

CREATE TABLE table_name

(column1 datatype null/not null,

column2 datatype null/not null,

...

CONSTRAINT fk_column

FOREIGN KEY (column1, column2, ... column_n)

REFERENCES parent_table (column1, column2, ... column_n)

ON DELETE CASCADE

);

For example:

CREATE TABLE supplier

( supplier_id numeric(10) not null,

supplier_name varchar2(50) not null,

contact_name varchar2(50),

CONSTRAINT supplier_pk PRIMARY KEY

(supplier_id)

);

CREATE TABLE products

( product_id numeric(10) not null,

supplier_id numeric(10) not null,

CONSTRAINT fk_supplier

FOREIGN KEY (supplier_id)

REFERENCES supplier(supplier_id)

ON DELETE CASCADE

);

In this example, we've created a primary key on the supplier table called supplier_pk. It consists of only one field - the supplier_id field. Then we've created a foreign key called fk_supplier on the products table that references the supplier table based on the supplier_id field.

Because of the cascade delete, when a record in the supplier table is deleted, all records in the products table will also be deleted that have the same supplier_id value.

We could also create a foreign key (with a cascade delete) with more than one field as in the example below:

CREATE TABLE supplier

( supplier_id numeric(10) not null,

supplier_name varchar2(50) not null,

contact_name varchar2(50),

CONSTRAINT supplier_pk PRIMARY KEY (supplier_id,

supplier_name)

);

CREATE TABLE products

( product_id numeric(10) not null,

supplier_id numeric(10) not null,

supplier_name varchar2(50) not null,

CONSTRAINT fk_supplier_comp

FOREIGN KEY (supplier_id, supplier_name)

REFERENCES supplier(supplier_id, supplier_name)

ON DELETE CASCADE

);

In this example, our foreign key called fk_foreign_comp references the supplier table based on two fields - the supplier_id and supplier_name fields. The cascade delete on the foreign key called fk_foreign_comp causes all corresponding records in the products table to be cascade deleted when a record in the supplier table is deleted, based on supplier_id and supplier_name.

Using an ALTER TABLE statement

The syntax for creating a foreign key in an ALTER TABLE statement is:

ALTER TABLE table_name

add CONSTRAINT constraint_name

FOREIGN KEY (column1, column2, ... column_n)

REFERENCES parent_table (column1, column2, ... column_n)

ON DELETE CASCADE;

For example:

ALTER TABLE products

add CONSTRAINT fk_supplier

FOREIGN KEY (supplier_id)

REFERENCES supplier(supplier_id)

ON DELETE CASCADE;

In this example, we've created a foreign key (with a cascade delete) called fk_supplier that references the supplier table based on the supplier_id field.

We could also create a foreign key (with a cascade delete) with more than one field as in the example below:

ALTER TABLE products

add CONSTRAINT fk_supplier

FOREIGN KEY (supplier_id, supplier_name)

REFERENCES supplier(supplier_id, supplier_name)

ON DELETE CASCADE; Download Here Click Here