Skip to Content
Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Fourth Edition
book

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Fourth Edition

by Ryan K. Stephens, Ronald R. Plew
October 2002
Beginner
864 pages
18h 41m
English
Sams
Content preview from Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Fourth Edition

Exploring Types of Constraints

Now, you'll study the different types of constraints that can be created on database tables. Following is a list of those constraints:

  • NOT NULL

  • Primary key

  • Unique

  • Foreign key

  • Check

Each of these constraints have their own function. The functions and syntax of each of these constraints are discussed in the following subsections, as well as their place in a relational database.

NOT NULL Constraints

When you initially create a table, you must assign a data type to each column in the table. The data type assigned to a column tells the database what kind of data can be inserted into that column in a table. The different types of data mainly include Character data, Numeric data, and Date and Time data.

A basic CREATE TABLE ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours, Fifth Edition

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours, Fifth Edition

Ryan Stephens, Ron D. Plew, Arie D. Jones

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0672324512Purchase book