SQL Constraints

SQL Constraints are rules used to limit the type of data that can go into a table, to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the data inside table.

Constraints can be divided into the following two types,

1. Column level constraints: Limits only column data.
2. Table level constraints: Limits whole table data.

Constraints are used to make sure that the integrity of data is maintained in the database. Following are the most used constraints that can be applied to a table.

• NOT NULL
• UNIQUE
• PRIMARY KEY
• FOREIGN KEY
• CHECK
• DEFAULT

NOT NULL Constraint

By default, a column can hold NULL values. If you do not want a column to have a NULL value, use the NOT NULL constraint.

• It restricts a column from having a NULL value.
• We use ALTER statement and MODIFY statement to specify this constraint.

One important point to note about this constraint is that it cannot be defined at table level.

Example using NOT NULL constraint:

CREATE TABLE Student
(  	s_id int NOT NULL, 
   	name varchar(60), 
   	age  int
);

The above query will declare that the s_id field of Student table will not take NULL value.

If you wish to alter the table after it has been created, then we can use the ALTER command for it:

ALTER TABLE Student
MODIFY s_id int NOT NULL;

UNIQUE Constraint

It ensures that a column will only have unique values. A UNIQUE constraint field cannot have any duplicate data.

• It prevents two records from having identical values in a column
• We use ALTER statement and MODIFY statement to specify this constraint.

Example of UNIQUE Constraint:

Here we have a simple CREATE query to create a table, which will have a column s_id with unique values.

CREATE TABLE Student
( 	s_id int  NOT NULL, 
  	name varchar(60), 
  	age int  NOT NULL UNIQUE
);

The above query will declare that the s_id field of Student table will only have unique values and wont take NULL value.

If you wish to alter the table after it has been created, then we can use the ALTER command for it:

ALTER TABLE Student
MODIFY age INT NOT NULL UNIQUE;

The above query specifies that s_id field of Student table will only have unique value.

Primary Key Constraint

Primary key constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database. A Primary Key must contain unique value and it must not contain null value. Usually Primary Key is used to index the data inside the table.

PRIMARY KEY constraint at Table Level

CREATE table Student 
(	s_id int PRIMARY KEY, 
	Name varchar(60) NOT NULL, 
	Age int);

The above command will creates a PRIMARY KEY on the s_id.

PRIMARY KEY constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Student 
ADD PRIMARY KEY (s_id);

The above command will creates a PRIMARY KEY on the s_id.

Foreign Key Constraint

Foreign Key is used to relate two tables. The relationship between the two tables matches the Primary Key in one of the tables with a Foreign Key in the second table.

• This is also called a referencing key.
• We use ALTER statement and ADD statement to specify this constraint.

To understand FOREIGN KEY, let's see its use, with help of the below tables:

Customer_Detail Table

Order_Detail Table

In Customer_Detail table, c_id is the primary key which is set as foreign key in Order_Detail table. The value that is entered in c_id which is set as foreign key in Order_Detail table must be present in Customer_Detail table where it is set as primary key. This prevents invalid data to be inserted into c_id column of Order_Detail table.

If you try to insert any incorrect data, DBMS will return error and will not allow you to insert the data.

FOREIGN KEY constraint at Table Level

CREATE table Order_Detail(
    order_id int PRIMARY KEY, 
    order_name varchar(60) NOT NULL,
    c_id int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Customer_Detail(c_id)
);

In this query, c_id in table Order_Detail is made as foriegn key, which is a reference of c_id column in Customer_Detail table.

FOREIGN KEY constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Order_Detail 
ADD FOREIGN KEY (c_id) REFERENCES Customer_Detail(c_id);

Behaviour of Foriegn Key Column on Delete

There are two ways to maintin the integrity of data in Child table, when a particular record is deleted in the main table. When two tables are connected with Foriegn key, and certain data in the main table is deleted, for which a record exits in the child table, then we must have some mechanism to save the integrity of data in the child table.

1. On Delete Cascade : This will remove the record from child table, if that value of foriegn key is deleted from the main table.
2. On Delete Null : This will set all the values in that record of child table as NULL, for which the value of foriegn key is deleted from the main table.
3. If we don't use any of the above, then we cannot delete data from the main table for which data in child table exists. We will get an error if we try to do so.

ERROR : Record in child table exist

CHECK Constraint

CHECK constraint is used to restrict the value of a column between a range. It performs check on the values, before storing them into the database. Its like condition checking before saving data into a column.

Using CHECK constraint at Table Level

CREATE table Student(
    s_id int NOT NULL CHECK(s_id > 0),
    Name varchar(60) NOT NULL,
    Age int
);

The above query will restrict the s_id value to be greater than zero.

Using CHECK constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Student ADD CHECK(s_id > 0);

Related Tutorials:

• SQL function
• SQL Join
• SQL Alias
• SQL SET operation
• SQL Sequences
• SQL Views