Add constraint to compare two attributes of different tables? - sql

Question

Here are my tables. I need to check that the 'program' attribute referenced in StudentsBranch with the table Students and the table Branches is the same. How can I do it?
CREATE TABLE Programmes (
name VARCHAR(200) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Programmes PRIMARY KEY (name)
);
CREATE TABLE Students (
id NUMERIC(10,0) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Students PRIMARY KEY (idnr),
FOREIGN KEY (program) REFERENCES Programmes(name)
);
CREATE TABLE Branches (
name VARCHAR(200) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Branches PRIMARY KEY (name, program),
FOREIGN KEY (program) REFERENCES Programmes(name)
);
CREATE TABLE StudentsBranch (
student NUMERIC(10,0) NOT NULL,
program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
branch VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_StudentsBranch PRIMARY KEY (student),
/* Below how the foreign keys I think should be */
FOREIGN KEY (student, program) REFERENCES Students(idnr, program),
FOREIGN KEY (branch, program) REFERENCES Branches(name, program)
/* I need to add a constraint to verify that the 'program' in Students
* and the 'program' in Branches are equivalent. How?
*/
);

Answer 1

You can't write that constraint with that existing database model you have now.
The only way I see you could do it, is by changing the primary key of Students to (id, program):
CREATE TABLE Students (
id NUMERIC(10,0) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Students PRIMARY KEY (id, program),
FOREIGN KEY (program) REFERENCES Programmes(name)
);
Then the table StudentsBranch could naturally enforce both FKs with using the single column program, as in:
CREATE TABLE StudentsBranch (
student NUMERIC(10,0) NOT NULL,
program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
branch VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_StudentsBranch PRIMARY KEY (student),
FOREIGN KEY (student, program) REFERENCES Students (id, program),
FOREIGN KEY (branch, program) REFERENCES Branches (name, program)
);

Answer 2

It is always a good idea to have an numeric column of primary key and have primary key for every table.
Once you have primary key for every table you can referece primary key of a specific table and refere it as foerign key.
CREATE TABLE Programmes (
ID INT,
name VARCHAR(200) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Programmes PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
CREATE TABLE Students(
id INT,
ProgrammID INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Students PRIMARY KEY (ID),
FOREIGN KEY (ProgrammID) REFERENCES Programmes(ID)
);
CREATE TABLE Branches (
BranchID INT,
ProgrammID INT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(200) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
--program VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_Branches PRIMARY KEY (BranchID, ProgrammID),
FOREIGN KEY (ProgrammID) REFERENCES Programmes(ID)
);
CREATE TABLE StudentsBranch (
StudentsBranchID INT,
studentID INT NOT NULL,
ProgrammID INT NOT NULL,
BranchID INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_StudentsBranch PRIMARY KEY (StudentsBranchID),
FOREIGN KEY (ProgrammID) REFERENCES Programmes(id),
FOREIGN KEY (studentID) REFERENCES Students(id),
FOREIGN KEY (BranchID, ProgrammID) REFERENCES Branches(BranchID, ProgrammID)
);