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SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide
book

SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide

by Chris Fehily
July 2002
Beginner
424 pages
9h 30m
English
Peachpit Press
Content preview from SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide

Specifying a Foreign Key with FOREIGN KEY

I described foreign keys in “Foreign Keys” in Chapter 2, but I’ll review the basics here:

  • A foreign key is a mechanism that associates two tables.

  • A foreign key is a column (or set of columns) in a table whose values relate to, or reference, values in some other table.

  • A foreign key ensures that rows in one table have corresponding rows in another table, called the referenced table or parent table.

  • A foreign key establishes a direct relationship to a primary key or candidate key in the referenced table, so foreign-key values are restricted to parent-key values that already exist. This restriction is called referential integrity.

  • A foreign key, unlike a primary key, can permit nulls.

  • A table can have zero ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0321118030Purchase book