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Let's look at another core design concept of a relational database, the Foreign Key. Foreign Keys are a column, or columns, that relate records back to the primary key in another table.
Resources:
Here is an explanation and graphical representation of the Foreign Key relationships between three tables
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We've learned a lot about unique
keys and primary keys.
0:00
Unique keys guaranteed data is
unique within a given column.
0:03
Primary keys also guaranteed
the uniqueness within a column but
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they go a step further.
0:10
They guarantee that each row in
a table can be identified and
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thus linked from one table to another.
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In this video, we'll focus on another
really important type of key,
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the foreign key.
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You can think of a foreign
key as a pointer or
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reference from one table to another.
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With this example the ProductID
column in the cell table
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is appointed to the ProductID
in the Products table.
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The one in the ProductID column in the
sales table points to the corresponding
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one row in the product table.
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In this case scarf, purple, wool.
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The two points to the row in the product
table that says gloves, white.
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Finally the three points to the row
in the product table that says, coat,
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women's, long.
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The ProductID column in the cell
table is the foreign key.
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There are two facets to
creating a foreign key,
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while we're not creating a foreign
key ourselves it's good to know, first,
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the database designer has to match
the columns properly in both tables.
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For example, we just saw that the sale and
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product relationship with the ProductID
being referenced in this sales table.
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Database systems aren't smart enough to
know that these two columns are related
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without an additional instruction
when the tables are created.
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This instruction is called Constraint
specifically, a Foreign Key constraint.
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[SOUND] You can think of a constraint as
a rule that the database has to enforce,
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once the database is instructed to
enforce a foreign key constraint
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between two tables, it will not allow the
value to be added to a table containing
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a foreign key unless the value also
exists in a table with the primary key.
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Being able to ensure the validity of our
data relationships in this manner is
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called referential integrity and
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is one of the most important aspects
of a good relational database.
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Now, that we know what a foreign
key is let's see it in action.
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Here we have a table called EyeColor,
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It has an integer primary key that
we'll reference under the table.
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Lets add two rows to the EyeColor
table now, brown and blue.
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Imagine that we have a person table and
we're gonna insert three people,
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the first person will give brown eyes.
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Designated with the one to much
the value in the primary key column
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in the EyeColor table.
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The second person will give blue
eyes with the color ID value of two,
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the third person will give green eyes.
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Let's try and set that record with the
value of three, it shouldn't let us but
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it does.
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The person symbol has an EyeColorID
value that refers to a record
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in the EyeColor table that doesn't
exist with the ID of three.
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This would indicate that
the constraints had not been created
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on the EyeColorID relationship
between the two tables.
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Again, without the constraint, the
database doesn't care if we're trying to
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refer to a value that doesn't exist in
the primary key of the EyeColor table.
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[SOUND] But if the database has
proper constraints in place,
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it will not allow us to insert the row for
Jessica with the eye color of three
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until it exists in the primary
key in the EyeColor table.
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Now that we've added the green
color to the EyeColor table,
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let's try and insert Jessica again
with her green eyes and it works.
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In review, we've learned about three
different types of keys, unique,
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primary and foreign keys.
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Unique keys guarantee that no data
repeats within a particular column.
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Primary Keys are like unique keys but
they go further,
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they guarantee that each row on
the table can be uniquely identified.
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Primary keys also work together with
the last kind of key, foreign keys.
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To give us the ability to relate
two tables of data together
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on common data values.
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Last, we learned that foreign key
constraints are the way that database
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is enforce these relationships.
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Without foreign key constraints,
our data lacks referential integrity.
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There are other types of database keys
as well, check the teacher's notes for
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more information on all
types of database keys.
4:33
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