MySQL Foreign Key

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about MySQL foreign key and how to create, drop, and disable a foreign key constraint.

Introduction to MySQL foreign key

A foreign key is a column or group of columns in a table that links to a column or group of columns in another table. The foreign key places constraints on data in the related tables, which allows MySQL to maintain referential integrity.

Let’s take a look at the following customers and orders tables from the sample database.

In this diagram, each customer can have zero or many orders and each order belongs to one customer.

The relationship between customers table and orders table is one-to-many. This relationship is established via the foreign key in the orders table specified by the customerNumber column.

The customerNumber column in the orders table links to the customerNumber primary key column in the customers table.

The customers table is called the parent table or referenced table, and the orders table is known as the child table or referencing table.

Typically, the foreign key columns of the child table often refer to the primary key columns of the parent table.

A table can have more than one foreign key where each foreign key references a primary key of the different parent tables.

Once a foreign key constraint is in place, the foreign key columns from the child table must have the corresponding row in the parent key columns of the parent table, or values in these foreign key columns must be NULL (see the SET NULL action example below).

For example, each row in the orders table has a customerNumber that exists in the customerNumber column of the customers table. Multiple rows in the orders table can have the same customerNumber.

Self-referencing foreign key

Sometimes, the child and parent tables may refer to the same table. In this case, the foreign key references back to the primary key within the same table.

See the following employees table from the sample database.

The reportTo column is a foreign key that refers to the employeeNumber column which is the primary key of the employees table.

This relationship allows the employees table to store the reporting structure between employees and managers. Each employee reports to zero or one employee and an employee can have zero or many subordinates.

The foreign key on the column reportTo is known as a recursive or self-referencing foreign key.

MySQL FOREIGN KEY syntax

Here is the basic syntax of defining a foreign key constraint in the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement:

[CONSTRAINT constraint_name]
FOREIGN KEY [foreign_key_name] (column_name, ...)
REFERENCES parent_table(colunm_name,...)
[ON DELETE reference_option]
[ON UPDATE reference_option]Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax:

First, specify the name of the foreign key constraint that you want to create after the CONSTRAINT keyword. If you omit the constraint name, MySQL automatically generates a name for the foreign key constraint.

Second, specify a list of comma-separated foreign key columns after the FOREIGN KEY keywords. The foreign key name is also optional and is generated automatically if you skip it.

Third, specify the parent table followed by a list of comma-separated columns to which the foreign key columns reference.

Finally, specify how the foreign key maintains the referential integrity between the child and parent tables by using the ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clauses. The reference_option determines the action that MySQL will take when values in the parent key columns are deleted (ON DELETE) or updated (ON UPDATE).

MySQL has five reference options: CASCADE, SET NULL, NO ACTION, RESTRICT, and SET DEFAULT.

CASCADE: if a row from the parent table is deleted or updated, the values of the matching rows in the child table are automatically deleted or updated.
SET NULL: if a row from the parent table is deleted or updated, the values of the foreign key column (or columns) in the child table are set to NULL.
RESTRICT: if a row from the parent table has a matching row in the child table, MySQL rejects deleting or updating rows in the parent table.
NO ACTION: is the same as RESTRICT.
SET DEFAULT: is recognized by the MySQL parser. However, this action is rejected by both InnoDB and NDB tables.

MySQL fully supports three actions: RESTRICT, CASCADE and SET NULL.

If you don’t specify the ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clause, the default action is RESTRICT.

MySQL FOREIGN KEY examples

Let’s create a new database called fkdemo for the demonstration.

CREATE DATABASE fkdemo;

USE fkdemo;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

1) RESTRICT & NO ACTION actions

Inside the fkdemo database, create two tables categories and products:

CREATE TABLE categories(
  categoryId INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, 
  categoryName VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL
) ENGINE = INNODB;
CREATE TABLE products(
  productId INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, 
  productName VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL, 
  categoryId INT, 
  CONSTRAINT fk_category FOREIGN KEY (categoryId) 
                         REFERENCES categories(categoryId)
) ENGINE = INNODB;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The categoryId in the products table is the foreign key column that refers to the categoryId column in the categories table.

Because we don’t specify any ON UPDATE and ON DELETE clauses, the default action is RESTRICT for both update and delete operations.

The following steps illustrate the RESTRICT action.

1) Insert two rows into the categories table:

INSERT INTO categories(categoryName)
VALUES
    ('Smartphone'),
    ('Smartwatch');Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

2) Select data from the categories table:

SELECT * FROM categories;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

3) Insert a new row into the products table:

INSERT INTO products(productName, categoryId)
VALUES('iPhone',1);Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

It works because the categoryId 1 exists in the categories table.

4) Attempt to insert a new row into the products table with a categoryId value does not exist in the categories table:

INSERT INTO products(productName, categoryId)
VALUES('iPad',3);Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

MySQL issued the following error:

Error Code: 1452. Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`fkdemo`.`products`, CONSTRAINT `fk_category` FOREIGN KEY (`categoryId`) REFERENCES `categories` (`categoryId`) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT)Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

5) Update the value in the categoryId column in the categories table to 100:

UPDATE categories
SET categoryId = 100
WHERE categoryId = 1;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

MySQL issued this error:

Error Code: 1451. Cannot delete or update a parent row: a foreign key constraint fails (`fkdemo`.`products`, CONSTRAINT `fk_category` FOREIGN KEY (`categoryId`) REFERENCES `categories` (`categoryId`) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT)Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Because of the RESTRICT option, you cannot delete or update categoryId 1 since it is referenced by the productId 1 in the products table.

2) CASCADE action

These steps illustrate how ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE actions work.

1) Drop the products table:

DROP TABLE products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

2) Create the products table with the ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE options for the foreign key:

CREATE TABLE products(
    productId INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    productName varchar(100) not null,
    categoryId INT NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT fk_category
    FOREIGN KEY (categoryId) 
    REFERENCES categories(categoryId)
        ON UPDATE CASCADE
        ON DELETE CASCADE
) ENGINE=INNODB;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

3) Insert four rows into the products table:

INSERT INTO products(productName, categoryId)
VALUES
    ('iPhone', 1), 
    ('Galaxy Note',1),
    ('Apple Watch',2),
    ('Samsung Galary Watch',2);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

4) Select data from the products table:

SELECT * FROM products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

5) Update categoryId 1 to 100 in the categories table:

UPDATE categories
SET categoryId = 100
WHERE categoryId = 1;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

6) Verify the update:

SELECT * FROM categories;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

7) Get data from the products table:

SELECT * FROM products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

As you can see, two rows with value 1 in the categoryId column of the products table was automatically updated to 100 because of the ON UPDATE CASCADE action.

8) Delete categoryId 2 from the categories table:

DELETE FROM categories
WHERE categoryId = 2;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

9) Verify the deletion:

SELECT * FROM categories;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

10) Check the products table:

SELECT * FROM products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

All products with categoryId 2 from the products table was automatically deleted because of the ON DELETE CASCADE action.

3) SET NULL action

These steps illustrate how the ON UPDATE SET NULL and ON DELETE SET NULL actions work.

1) Drop both categories and products tables:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS categories;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

2) Create the categories and products tables:

CREATE TABLE categories(
    categoryId INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    categoryName VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL
)ENGINE=INNODB;

CREATE TABLE products(
    productId INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    productName varchar(100) not null,
    categoryId INT,
    CONSTRAINT fk_category
    FOREIGN KEY (categoryId) 
        REFERENCES categories(categoryId)
        ON UPDATE SET NULL
        ON DELETE SET NULL 
)ENGINE=INNODB;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The foreign key in the products table changed to ON UPDATE SET NULL and ON DELETE SET NULL options.

3) Insert rows into the categories table:

INSERT INTO categories(categoryName)
VALUES
    ('Smartphone'),
    ('Smartwatch');Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

4) Insert rows into the products table:

INSERT INTO products(productName, categoryId)
VALUES
    ('iPhone', 1), 
    ('Galaxy Note',1),
    ('Apple Watch',2),
    ('Samsung Galary Watch',2);Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

5) Update categoryId from 1 to 100 in the categories table:

UPDATE categories
SET categoryId = 100
WHERE categoryId = 1;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

6) Verify the update:

SELECT * FROM categories;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

7) Select data from the products table:

The rows with the categoryId 1 in the products table was automatically set to NULL due to the ON UPDATE SET NULL action.

8) Delete the categoryId 2 from the categories table:

DELETE FROM categories 
WHERE categoryId = 2;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

9) Check the products table:

SELECT * FROM products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The values in the categoryId column of the rows with categoryId 2 in the products table was automatically set to NULL due to the ON DELETE SET NULL action.

Drop MySQL foreign key constraints

To drop a foreign key constraint, you use the ALTER TABLE statement:

ALTER TABLE table_name 
DROP FOREIGN KEY constraint_name;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax:

First, specify the name of the table from which you want to drop the foreign key after the ALTER TABLE keywords.
Second, specify the constraint name after the DROP FOREIGN KEY keywords.

Notice that constraint_name is the name of the foreign key constraint specified when you created or added the foreign key constraint to the table.

To obtain the generated constraint name of a table, you use the SHOW CREATE TABLE statement:

SHOW CREATE TABLE table_name;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

For example, to see the foreign keys of the products table, you use the following statement:

SHOW CREATE TABLE products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The following is the output of the statement:

As you can see clearly from the output, the table products table has one foreign key constraint: fk_category

This statement drops the foreign key constraint of the products table:

ALTER TABLE products 
DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_category;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

To ensure that the foreign key constraint has been dropped, you can view the structure of the products table:

SHOW CREATE TABLE products;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

MySQL Foreign Key - after drop foreign key constraint

Disabling foreign key checks

Sometimes, it is very useful to disable foreign key checks e.g., when you import data from a CSV file into a table.

If you don’t disable foreign key checks, you have to load data into a proper order i.e., you have to load data into parent tables first and then child tables, which can be tedious.

However, if you disable the foreign key checks, you can load data into tables in any order.

To disable foreign key checks, you use the following statement:

SET foreign_key_checks = 0;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

And you can enable it by using the following statement:

SET foreign_key_checks = 1;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this tutorial, you have learned about the MySQL foreign key and how to create a foreign key constraint with various reference options.

Was this tutorial helpful?