By convention, Rails assumes that the column in the join table used to hold the foreign key pointing to this model is the name of this model with the suffix id added. The:foreignkey option lets you set the name of the foreign key directly. By convention, Rails guesses that the column in the join table used to hold the foreign key pointing to this model is the name of this model with the suffix id added. The:foreignkey option lets you set the name of the foreign key directly. May 31, 2013 Recently we had a situation where we inherited a schema and two of the models were joined using multiple foreign keys. The Rails associations API doesn’t appear to offer any good solutions to this problem. You can specify a single foreignkey and a single primarykey, but nothing really for multiple keys. Adds a new foreign key. Fromtable is the table with the key column, totable contains the referenced primary key. The foreign key will be named after the following pattern: fkrails. Create a foreign key relationship in Table Designer Using SQL Server Management Studio. In Object Explorer, right-click the table that will be on the foreign-key side of the relationship and click Design. The table opens in Table Designer. From the Table Designer menu, click Relationships. In the Foreign-key Relationships dialog box, click Add. Creates a new table with the name tablename.tablename may either be a String or a Symbol. There are two ways to work with #createtable.You can use the block form or the regular form, like this: Block form.
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:
Rails Generate Model Foreign Key
PersonID | LastName | FirstName | Age |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Hansen | Ola | 30 |
2 | Svendson | Tove | 23 |
3 | Pettersen | Kari | 20 |
'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)
);
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)
);
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)
);
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);
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);
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;
DROP FOREIGN KEY FK_PersonOrder;
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder;
DROP CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder;