SQL Constraints
SQL constraints are used to specify rules for the data in a table.
Constraints are used to limit the type of data that can go into a table. This
ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data in the table. If there is any
violation between the constraint and the data action, the action is aborted.
Constraints can be column level or table level. Column level constraints apply to
a column, and table level constraints apply to the whole table.
The following constraints are commonly used in SQL:
NOT NULL - Ensures that a column cannot have a NULL value
UNIQUE - Ensures that all values in a column are different
PRIMARY KEY - A combination of a NOT NULL and UNIQUE. Uniquely
identifies each row in a table
FOREIGN KEY - Uniquely identifies a row/record in another table
CHECK - Ensures that all values in a column satisfies a specific condition
DEFAULT - Sets a default value for a column when no value is specified
INDEX - Used to create and retrieve data from the database very quickly
SQL NOT NULL Constraint
By default, a column can hold NULL values.
The NOT NULL constraint enforces a column to NOT accept NULL values.
This enforces a field to always contain a value, which means that you cannot
insert a new record, or update a record without adding a value to this field.
The following SQL ensures that the "ID", "LastName", and "FirstName" columns
will NOT accept NULL values:
Example
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
Age int
);
Try it Yourself »
Tip: If the table has already been created, you can add a NOT NULL constraint
to a column with the ALTER TABLE statement.
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SQL UNIQUE Constraint
The UNIQUE constraint ensures that all values in a column are different.
Both the UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints provide a guarantee for
uniqueness for a column or set of columns.
A PRIMARY KEY constraint automatically has a UNIQUE constraint.
However, you can have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only one
PRIMARY KEY constraint per table.
SQL UNIQUE Constraint on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "ID" column when the
"Persons" table is created:
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL UNIQUE,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int
);
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
UNIQUE (ID)
);
To name a UNIQUE constraint, and to define a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
CONSTRAINT UC_Person UNIQUE (ID,LastName)
);
SQL UNIQUE Constraint on ALTER TABLE
To create a UNIQUE constraint on the "ID" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD UNIQUE (ID);
To name a UNIQUE constraint, and to define a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT UC_Person UNIQUE (ID,LastName);
DROP a UNIQUE Constraint
To drop a UNIQUE constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP INDEX UC_Person;
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT UC_Person;
SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint
The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.
Primary keys must contain UNIQUE values, and cannot contain NULL values.
A table can have only one primary key, which may consist of single or multiple
fields.
SQL PRIMARY KEY on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "ID" column when the
"Persons" table is created:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int
);
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
CONSTRAINT PK_Person PRIMARY KEY (ID,LastName)
);
Note: In the example above there is only ONE PRIMARY KEY (PK_Person).
However, the VALUE of the primary key is made up of TWO COLUMNS (ID +
LastName).
SQL PRIMARY KEY on ALTER TABLE
To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "ID" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD PRIMARY KEY (ID);
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Person PRIMARY KEY (ID,LastName);
Note: If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the primary
key column(s) must already have been declared to not contain NULL values
(when the table was first created).
DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint
To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP PRIMARY KEY;
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT PK_Person;
SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint
A FOREIGN KEY is a key used to link two tables together.
A FOREIGN KEY is a field (or collection of fields) in one table that refers to the
PRIMARY KEY in another table.
The table containing the foreign key is called the child table, and the table
containing the candidate key is called the referenced or parent table.
Look at the following two tables:
"Persons" table:
PersonID LastName FirstNam
1 Hansen Ola
2 Svendson Tove
3 Pettersen Kari
"Orders" table:
OrderID OrderNumber PersonID
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1
Notice that the "PersonID" column in the "Orders" table points to the "PersonID"
column in the "Persons" table.
The "PersonID" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the
"Persons" table.
The "PersonID" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders"
table.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy links
between tables.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint also prevents invalid data from being inserted into
the foreign key column, because it has to be one of the values contained in the
table it points to.
SQL FOREIGN KEY on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "PersonID" column when the
"Orders" table is created:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Orders (
OrderID int NOT NULL,
OrderNumber int NOT NULL,
PersonID int,
PRIMARY KEY (OrderID),
FOREIGN KEY (PersonID) REFERENCES Persons(PersonID)
);
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Orders (
OrderID int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
OrderNumber int NOT NULL,
PersonID int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Persons(PersonID)
);
To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Orders (
OrderID int NOT NULL,
OrderNumber int NOT NULL,
PersonID int,
PRIMARY KEY (OrderID),
CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder FOREIGN KEY (PersonID)
REFERENCES Persons(PersonID)
);
SQL FOREIGN KEY on ALTER TABLE
To create a FOREIGN KEY constraint on the "PersonID" column when the
"Orders" table is already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
ADD FOREIGN KEY (PersonID) REFERENCES Persons(PersonID);
To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder
FOREIGN KEY (PersonID) REFERENCES Persons(PersonID);
DROP a FOREIGN KEY Constraint
To drop a FOREIGN KEY constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP FOREIGN KEY FK_PersonOrder;
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder;
SQL CHECK Constraint
The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in a
column.
If you define a CHECK constraint on a single column it allows only certain values
for this column.
If you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain
columns based on values in other columns in the row.
SQL CHECK on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "Age" column when the
"Persons" table is created. The CHECK constraint ensures that you can not have
any person below 18 years:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
CHECK (Age>=18)
);
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int CHECK (Age>=18)
);
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on
multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT CHK_Person CHECK (Age>=18 AND City='Sandnes')
);
SQL CHECK on ALTER TABLE
To create a CHECK constraint on the "Age" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CHECK (Age>=18);
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on
multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT CHK_PersonAge CHECK (Age>=18 AND City='Sandnes');
DROP a CHECK Constraint
To drop a CHECK constraint, use the following SQL:
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT CHK_PersonAge;
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CHECK CHK_PersonAge;
SQL DEFAULT Constraint
The DEFAULT constraint is used to provide a default value for a column.
The default value will be added to all new records IF no other value is specified.
SQL DEFAULT on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL sets a DEFAULT value for the "City" column when the
"Persons" table is created:
My SQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
CREATE TABLE Persons (
ID int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Age int,
City varchar(255) DEFAULT 'Sandnes'
);
The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using
functions like GETDATE():
CREATE TABLE Orders (
ID int NOT NULL,
OrderNumber int NOT NULL,
OrderDate date DEFAULT GETDATE()
);
SQL DEFAULT on ALTER TABLE
To create a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER City SET DEFAULT 'Sandnes';
SQL Server / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER COLUMN City SET DEFAULT 'Sandnes';
Oracle:
ALTER TABLE Persons
MODIFY City DEFAULT 'Sandnes';
DROP a DEFAULT Constraint
To drop a DEFAULT constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER City DROP DEFAULT;
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER COLUMN City DROP DEFAULT;
QL CREATE INDEX Statement
The CREATE INDEX statement is used to create indexes in tables.
Indexes are used to retrieve data from the database very fast. The users cannot
see the indexes, they are just used to speed up searches/queries.
Note: Updating a table with indexes takes more time than updating a table
without (because the indexes also need an update). So, only create indexes on
columns that will be frequently searched against.
CREATE INDEX Syntax
Creates an index on a table. Duplicate values are allowed:
CREATE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column1, column2, ...);
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX Syntax
Creates a unique index on a table. Duplicate values are not allowed:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column1, column2, ...);
Note: The syntax for creating indexes varies among different databases.
Therefore: Check the syntax for creating indexes in your database.
CREATE INDEX Example
The SQL statement below creates an index named "idx_lastname" on the
"LastName" column in the "Persons" table:
CREATE INDEX idx_lastname
ON Persons (LastName);
If you want to create an index on a combination of columns, you can list the
column names within the parentheses, separated by commas:
CREATE INDEX idx_pname
ON Persons (LastName, FirstName);
DROP INDEX Statement
The DROP INDEX statement is used to delete an index in a table.
MS Access:
DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name;
SQL Server:
DROP INDEX table_name.index_name;
DB2/Oracle:
DROP INDEX index_name;
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP INDEX index_name;
