Mysql – Does a view need its own foreign key constraints

foreign keyMySQLview

Disclaimer: I'm a programmer, not a DBA, so bear with me…

I have a view that I use to just map 2 entities together. I have to do a join between a few different tables to get that:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW V_SCREENING_GROUP_SITES AS (
SELECT SG.SCREENING_GROUP_ID, V.SITE_ID
FROM SCREENING_GROUP SG, VISIT V, VISIT_DATE VD
WHERE VD.VISIT_ID = V.VISIT_ID 
AND V.SCREENING_GROUP_ID = SG.SCREENING_GROUP_ID);

Above is just for context, don't worry too much about that. What I need to know is how to make the fields in my new V_SCREENING_GROUP_SITES view (SCREENING_GROUP_ID and SITE_ID) behave as foreign keys to the SCREENING_GROUP and SITE tables. Or does it even matter?

If it was a table I would do:

ALTER TABLE V_SCREENING_GROUP_SITES
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_SCREENING_GROUP_ID
FOREIGN KEY (SCREENING_GROUP_ID)
REFERENCES SCREENING_GROUP.SCREENING_GROUP_ID;
...

But since it's a view that obviously doesn't work. I couldn't find an ALTER VIEW syntax that works for setting FKs. What should I do?

(This is a MySQL Database)

Best Answer

A View is a logical table that is based on one or more physical tables. If there are foreign key relationships in the underlying tables, then they will be manifested in the view. Views are entirely dependent on the tables they are derived from, so trying to add foreign keys to them is not possible.

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Mysql – Foreign key constraints with MySQL/InnoDB

"integers are cheaper to compare than characters, because character sets and collations (sorting rules) make character comparisons complicated. Integers are very good when using as an index column." - HottestGuide

Sql-server – View foreign key constraints so I can delete a table

And here's how to generate the script @Shark showed for all the tables you want to drop. Let's say you have the following tables:

USE tempdb;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.z(z INT PRIMARY KEY); -- we won't delete this one

CREATE TABLE dbo.a
(
 a INT PRIMARY KEY FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES dbo.z(z)
);

CREATE TABLE dbo.b
(
 b INT PRIMARY KEY, 
 a INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES dbo.a(a)
);

CREATE TABLE dbo.c
(
 c INT PRIMARY KEY, 
 b INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES dbo.b(b), 
 a INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES dbo.a(a)
);

-- we won't drop this table either, but we'll need to drop
-- the constraint:

CREATE TABLE dbo.d
(
 d INT, 
 c INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES dbo.c(c)
);

But we only want to delete a, b, and c.

-- load the tables you want to delete into a table variable:

DECLARE @tables_to_delete TABLE (t NVARCHAR(512));

INSERT @tables_to_delete VALUES('dbo.a'),('dbo.b'),('dbo.c');


DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'';

-- build a list of the foreign keys you'll have to drop first:

SELECT @sql += CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + N'ALTER TABLE ' 
    + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(f.parent_object_id))
    + '.' + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(f.parent_object_id))
    + ' DROP CONSTRAINT ' + QUOTENAME(f.name) + ';'
FROM sys.foreign_keys AS f
INNER JOIN @tables_to_delete AS t
ON f.referenced_object_id = OBJECT_ID(t.t);

-- then the DROP TABLE commands:

SELECT @sql += CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + N'DROP TABLE '
    + t + ';'
FROM @tables_to_delete;

PRINT @sql;
-- EXEC sp_executesql @sql;

Result (the constraint names will look different if you run this):

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[b] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK__b__a__2D27B809];
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[c] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK__c__a__30F848ED];
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[c] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK__c__b__300424B4];
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[d] DROP CONSTRAINT [FK__d__c__32E0915F];
DROP TABLE dbo.a;
DROP TABLE dbo.b;
DROP TABLE dbo.c;

When you're happy about the result, uncomment the EXEC line.

(Note, you won't be able to validate the script in its entirety when using PRINT if the script is very large. The script is truncated by Management Studio because it still has an archaic limit to how many characters it will show. The string won't be truncated like this when it gets passed to sp_executesql.)

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