Department of Computer Science

Sukkur Institute of Business Administration University

CSC-252: Database Management System

Lab # 08: To Work with SQL Constraints

Objectives

1. To learn an application of Constraints on a Table & its columns.

Introduction of SQL Constraints

 SQL Constraints are rules used to limit the type of data that can go into a table, to
maintain the accuracy and integrity of the data inside table. Constraints can be divided
into the following two types,

1. Column level constraints: Limits only column data.

Constraints are used to make sure that the integrity of data is maintained in the database.
Following are the most used constraints that can be applied to a table.

 NOT NULL
 UNIQUE
 PRIMARY KEY
 FOREIGN KEY

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 CHECK
 AUTO_INCREMENT
 DEFAULT

NOT NULL: Ensures that a column cannot contain null values.

UNIQUE: Ensures that all values in a column are unique.

PRIMARY KEY: Defines a column (or combination of columns) that uniquely identifies
each row in a table.

FOREIGN KEY: Establishes a link between data in two tables, enforcing referential
integrity.

CHECK: Specifies a condition that must be met for the data to be valid.

AUTO_INCREMENT: Automatically generates a unique value for a column, typically used

DEFAULT: Assigns a default value to a column if no other value is specified.

NOT NULL Constraint

NOT NULL constraint restricts a column from having a NULL value. Once NOT NULL
constraint is applied to a column, you cannot pass a null value to that column. It enforces a
column to contain a proper value.

One important point to note about this constraint is that it cannot be defined at table level.

Example:

CREATE TABLE Employees (

EmployeeID INT NOT NULL,

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FirstName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

LastName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL

);

Example to check:

Insert into employees (EmployeeID,FirstName,LastName) values (2, 'jack', Null);

UNIQUE Constraint

UNIQUE constraint ensures that a field or column will only have unique values. A UNIQUE
constraint field will not have duplicate data. This constraint can be applied at column level or
table level.

Using UNIQUE constraint when creating a Table (Table Level)

Example:

CREATE TABLE Students (

StudentID INT UNIQUE,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

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LastName VARCHAR(50)

);

The above query will declare that the StudentID field of Student table will only have unique
values.

Example to check:

Insert into Students (StudentID,FirstName,LastName) values (3, 'jack','phill');

Insert into Students (StudentID,FirstName,LastName) values (3, 'jack','phill');

Using UNIQUE constraint after Table is created (Column Level)

ALTER TABLE Students Modify column LastName VARCHAR(50) unique;

ALTER TABLE Student ADD UNIQUE(email);

The above query specifies that s_id field of Student table will only have unique value. You
cannot add this constraint to column that already have duplicate values.

PRIMARY KEY Constraint

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Primary key constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database. A Primary Key must
contain unique value and it must not contain null value. Usually, Primary Key is used to index
the data inside the table.

Using PRIMARY KEY constraint at Table Level

Example:

CREATE TABLE Orders (

OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY,

CustomerID INT,

OrderDate DATE

);

Example to check:

INSERT INTO Orders (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate) VALUES (1, 1001, '2022-04-01');

INSERT INTO Orders (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate) VALUES (1, 1002, '2022-04-02'); --
This should fail due to duplicate PRIMARY KEY constraint on OrderID

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Using PRIMARY KEY constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Student ADD PRIMARY KEY (StudentID);

The above command will creates a PRIMARY KEY on the StudentID.

For multiple columns:

PRIMARY KEY (StudentID, home_city)

CREATE TABLE Orders1 (

OrderID INT, CustomerID INT,

OrderDate DATE,

PRIMARY KEY (OrderID,CustomerID )

);

FOREIGN KEY Constraint

FOREIGN KEY is used to relate two tables. FOREIGN KEY constraint is also used to restrict
actions that would destroy links between tables. To understand FOREIGN KEY, let's see its
use, with help of the below tables:

Customer_Detail Table

cid CustomerName address

101 Nida Sukkur

102 Rameez Karachi

103 Fabiha Lahore

Order Table

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Orderid OrderNam cid

10 ProductID 10

11 Mobile 103

12 Order3 102

In Customer_Detail table, cid is the primary key which is set as foreign key in Order table.
The value that is entered in cid which is set as foreign key in Order table must be present in
Customer_Detail table where it is set as primary key. This prevents invalid data to be
inserted into cid column of Order table.

If you try to insert any incorrect data, DBMS will return error and will not allow you to insert
the data.

Example:

CREATE TABLE Customers (

CustomerID INT PRIMARY KEY,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

LastName VARCHAR(50)

);

CREATE TABLE Orderinfo (

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OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY,

CustomerID INT,

FOREIGN KEY (CustomerID) REFERENCES Customers(CustomerID)

);

Example to check:

Using FOREIGN KEY constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Order_Detail ADD FOREIGN KEY (cid) REFERENCES Customer_Detail(cid);

For multiple columns:

This is creating composite foreign key

FOREIGN KEY(ord_no, book_id) REFERENCES neworder(ord_no,book_id),

To create composite foreign key, you must create a composite primary key column using

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CREATE TABLE neworder (

ord_no INT,

book_id VARCHAR(10),

order_date DATE,

PRIMARY KEY (ord_no, book_id)

);

ord_no book_id order_date

For multiple tables:

-- Create tables

CREATE TABLE Table1 (

ID INT PRIMARY KEY,

CommonAttribute VARCHAR(50),

-- Other attributes

);

CREATE TABLE Table2 (

ID INT PRIMARY KEY,

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CommonAttribute VARCHAR(50),

-- Other attributes

);

CREATE TABLE ReferencingTable (

ID INT PRIMARY KEY,

CommonAttribute VARCHAR(50),

-- Other attributes

FOREIGN KEY (ID, CommonAttribute) REFERENCES Table1(ID, CommonAttribute),

FOREIGN KEY (ID, CommonAttribute) REFERENCES Table2(ID, CommonAttribute)

);

To show FK:

show create table tablename;

Behavior of Foreign Key Column on Delete/Update

 When two tables are connected with Foreign key, and certain data in the main table is
deleted/updated, for which a record exists in the child table, then we must have some
mechanism to save the integrity of data in the child table.
 MySQL allows creating a table with CASCADE, SET NULL and RESTRICT options.

CASCADE: When a row in the parent table (containing the primary key) is deleted or updated,
the corresponding rows in the child table (containing foreign keys referencing the primary
key) are also automatically deleted or updated, respectively.

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SET NULL: When a row in the parent table is deleted or updated, the foreign key columns in
the child table are set to NULL. This is useful when you want to disassociate the child records
from the parent records without deleting them.

RESTRICT: This option prevents the deletion or modification of rows in the parent table if
there are matching rows in the child table. It acts as a constraint to enforce referential
integrity and prevents operations that would result in orphaned records in the child table.

CASCADE option:

-- Create Teachers table

CREATE TABLE Teachers (

TeacherID INT PRIMARY KEY,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

LastName VARCHAR(50)

);

-- Create TeacherDetails table with CASCADE option

CREATE TABLE TeacherDetails (

DetailID INT PRIMARY KEY,

TeacherID INT,

DetailInfo VARCHAR(255),

FOREIGN KEY (TeacherID) REFERENCES Teachers(TeacherID) ON DELETE CASCADE

);

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-- Insert data into Teachers table

INSERT INTO Teachers (TeacherID, FirstName, LastName) VALUES (1, 'Ahmed', 'Khan');

-- Insert related data into TeacherDetails table

INSERT INTO TeacherDetails (DetailID, TeacherID, DetailInfo) VALUES (101, 1, 'Detail info
for Ahmed Khan');

-- Delete the record from Teachers table

DELETE FROM Teachers WHERE TeacherID = 1;

-- Check if related record is deleted from TeacherDetails table

SELECT * FROM TeacherDetails; -- This should return an empty result set

-- Update record in Teachers table

UPDATE Teachers SET FirstName = 'Muhammad' WHERE TeacherID = 1;

-- Check if related record is updated in TeacherDetails table

SELECT * FROM TeacherDetails; -- This should show the updated record

RESTRICT option:

-- Create Lecturers table

CREATE TABLE Lecturers (

LecturerID INT PRIMARY KEY,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

LastName VARCHAR(50)

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);

-- Create LecturerDetails table with RESTRICT option

CREATE TABLE LecturerDetails (

DetailID INT PRIMARY KEY,

LecturerID INT,

DetailInfo VARCHAR(255),

FOREIGN KEY (LecturerID) REFERENCES Lecturers(LecturerID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON

);

-- Insert data into Lecturers table

INSERT INTO Lecturers (LecturerID, FirstName, LastName) VALUES (2, 'Fatima', 'Hussain');

-- Insert related data into LecturerDetails table

INSERT INTO LecturerDetails (DetailID, LecturerID, DetailInfo) VALUES (102, 2, 'Detail info
for Fatima Hussain');

-- Attempt to delete the record from Lecturers table

DELETE FROM Lecturers WHERE LecturerID = 2; -- This should fail due to RESTRICT option

-- Check if related record is still present in LecturerDetails table

SELECT * FROM LecturerDetails; -- This should still return the related record

-- Attempt to update record in Lecturers table

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UPDATE Lecturers SET LastName = 'Hussain' WHERE LecturerID = 2; -- This should fail due to
RESTRICT option

-- Check if related record is still present in LecturerDetails table

SELECT * FROM LecturerDetails; -- This should still return the related record

CHECK Constraint

CHECK constraint is used to restrict the value of a column between a range. It performs check
on the values, before storing them into the database. It’s like condition checking before saving
data into a column.

Using CHECK constraint at Table Level

-- Create a table with a CHECK constraint to ensure that age is greater than or equal to 18

CREATE TABLE Students (

StudentID INT PRIMARY KEY,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

LastName VARCHAR(50),

Age INT,

CHECK (Age >= 18)

);

-- Insert data into Students table

INSERT INTO Students (StudentID, FirstName, LastName, Age) VALUES (1, 'Ali', 'Khan', 20); --
Valid

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INSERT INTO Students (StudentID, FirstName, LastName, Age) VALUES (2, 'Sana', 'Ahmed',
16); -- Invalid, will fail due to CHECK constraint

Example:

-- Create a table with a CHECK constraint to ensure that salary is greater than 0

CREATE TABLE Employees (

EmployeeID INT PRIMARY KEY,

FirstName VARCHAR(50),

LastName VARCHAR(50),

Salary DECIMAL(10, 2),

CHECK (Salary > 0)

);

-- Insert data into Employees table

INSERT INTO Employees (EmployeeID, FirstName, LastName, Salary) VALUES (1, 'Ahmed',
'Ali', 50000.00); -- Valid

INSERT INTO Employees (EmployeeID, FirstName, LastName, Salary) VALUES (2, 'Fatima',
'Khan', -1000.00); -- Invalid, will fail due to CHECK constraint

Using CHECK constraint at Column Level

ALTER table Student ADD CHECK(s_id > 0);

CHECK CONSTRAINT using IN operator

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MySQL CHECK CONSTRAINT can be applied to a column of a table, to set a limit for storing
values within a range, along with IN operator.

CREATE TABLE patient(

id INT(11) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,

name VARCHAR(30),

phone INT(15),

country varchar(25) NOT NULL CHECK(country IN('UK', 'USA'))

);

You can use CHECK CONSTRAINT with LIKE, OR & AND operator and also with CASE
statement.

AUTO_INCREMENT Constraint

MySQL allows you to set AUTO_INCREMENT to a column. Doing so will increase the value of
that column by 1 automatically, each time a new record is added.

Example:

-- Create a new table with an AUTO_INCREMENT column

CREATE TABLE Products (

ProductID INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,

ProductName VARCHAR(255),

Price DECIMAL(10, 2)

);

Example to check:

INSERT INTO Products (ProductName, Price) VALUES ('Product A', 10.99);

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INSERT INTO Products (ProductName, Price) VALUES ('Product B', 19.99);

INSERT INTO Products (ProductName, Price) VALUES ('Product C', 15.49);

Example:

ALTER TABLE customer MODIFY id int AUTO_INCREMENT;

The above command will modify the id column of the customer table, to an auto increment.

DEFAULT Constraint

-- Create a table with a DEFAULT constraint

CREATE TABLE Books (

BookID INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,

Title VARCHAR(100),

Author VARCHAR(100),

Genre VARCHAR(50) DEFAULT 'Fiction'

);

-- Insert data into the table

INSERT INTO Books (Title, Author) VALUES ('To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Harper Lee'); -- Genre
will default to 'Fiction'

INSERT INTO Books (Title, Author, Genre) VALUES ('1984', 'George Orwell', 'Dystopian'); --
Explicit genre value provided

INSERT INTO Books (Title, Author) VALUES ('Pride and Prejudice', 'Jane Austen'); -- Genre
will default to 'Fiction'.

Exercises (Class)

1. Add here all the tasks performed in lab.

Exercises (Weekly)

1. Create a table DEPARTMENT with the following attributes:

DEPTNO number, DNAME varchar(10), LOC varchar(10). PRIMARY KEY constraint on

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DEPTNO.

2. Create a table EMPLOYEE with the following attributes:

EMPNO number, ENAME varchar(10),SAL number, DEPTNO number. Apply FOREIGN KEY
constraint on DEPTNO referencing the DEPARTMENT table created in question 1 and
PRIMARY KEY constraint on EMPNO and DEPTNO.

3. ALTER table EMPLOYEE created in question 2 and apply the constraint CHECK on

ENAME attribute such that ENAME should always be inserted in capital letters.

4. ALTER table DEPARTMENT created in question 1 and apply constraint on DNAME such
that DNAME should not be entered empty.

5. ALTER table EMPLOYEE created in question 2 and apply the constraint on SAL attribute
such that no two salaries of the employees should be similar.

6. ALTER table EMPLOYEE created in question 2 and apply the constraint on DEPTNO
attribute such that on update, update a child value and on delete set null value to a child.

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