SQL ADD FOREIGN KEY Clause

A Foreign Key is a constraint that ensures that column(s) in one table match the primary key column(s) in another table. For example, we may have a table named SALES_ORDER_LINE that contains orders for products and a table named PRODUCT that contains product information.

SALES_ORDER_LINE Table:

Column Name	Datatype	Constraint
sales_order_line_id	INT	NOT NULL - PRIMARY KEY
sales_order_id	INT	NOT NULL
line_nbr	INT	NOT NULL
product_id	INT	NOT NULL
line_order_qty	INT	NOT NULL
line_ship_qty	INT	NOT NULL
line_status_code	CHAR(10)	NOT NULL

PRODUCT Table:

Column Name	Datatype	Constraint
product_id	INT	NOT NULL - PRIMARY KEY
product_nbr	VARCHAR(20)	NOT NULL
product_name	VARCHAR(100)	NOT NULL
inventory_qty	INT	NOT NULL
product_status_code	CHAR(10)	NOT NULL

A foreign key is placed on the product_id column of the SALES_ORDER_LINE table to the primary key of the PRODUCT table. This establishes "Referential Integrity", RI for short, that requires a row to exist in the PRODUCT table that matches the row in the SALES_ORDER_LINE table.

The SQL CREATE FOREIGN KEY clause is the SQL capability that adds a new foreign key an existing table to an SQL database.

SQL foreign keys are used because they can provide the following benefits / functions:

• Improve data quality by enforcing Referential Integrity (RI) rules
• Enable understanding of data structures

The SQL CREATE FOREIGN KEY clause is used as follows.

SQL CREATE FOREIGN KEY Clause Syntax

The number of characters that can make up SQL names for tables, columns and foreign keys varies by DBMS. In many cases the limit is 30 characters. The leading character of the name must be alphabetic - not a number or special character. The name of a new foreign key can not duplicate the name of an existing foreign key for the database and should not be the same as a SQL reserved word. To make the foreign key unique it is common practice to include the table and column name as part of the foreign key name. The underscore character can be used to improve readability. List elements are seperated by commas.

SQL ADD FOREIGN KEY Clause Example

The following example creates a foreign key on column product_id on table SALES_ORDER_LINE with column product_id which is the primary key of table product.

This SQL ADD FOREIGN KEY class is executed: