I can't find how to add ON DELETE CASCADE rule in pgAdmin 3. I want to achieve that if a record in the parent table is deleted, then the corresponding records in the child table will automatically be deleted.
Still, I can't find this option when creating tables visually in pgAdmin.
I can see something like this:
But none of this seems to offers option to achieve what I want... Any ideas how to do it through pgAdmin?
Oh, I just found it, it was simple, but still I will post it for future readers with a same question. When creating foreign key constraint there is Action tab and from there it is possible to define what you want to happen on update, or on delete:
Related
I have a fairly simple design, as follows:
What I want to achieve in my grouping_individual_history is marked in red:
when a session is deleted, I want to cascade delete the grouping_history....
when a grouping is deleted, I just want the child field to be nullified
It seems that MSSQL will not allow me to have more than one FK that does something else than no action ... It'll complain with:
Introducing FOREIGN KEY constraint 'FK_grouping_individual_history_grouping' on table 'grouping_individual_history' may cause cycles or multiple cascade paths. Specify ON DELETE NO ACTION or ON UPDATE NO ACTION, or modify other FOREIGN KEY constraints.
I've already read this post (https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2733/solving-the-sql-server-multiple-cascade-path-issue-with-a-trigger/), although it's not quite the same scenario it seems to me.
I've tried doing a INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger on my grouping table, but it wont accept it, because in turn, my grouping table has another FK (fkSessionID) that does a cascade delete... So, the fix would be to change it all, in all affected tables with FKs. The chain is long though, and we cannot consider it.
For one thing, can someone explain to me why SQL Server is giving me the issue for this very simple scenario in the first place? I just don't understand it.
Is there another workaround I could use (besides just removing the foreign key link from my grouping_individual_history table)?
I have the following case, what I would like to do is, if I delete a row from DashboardKpi or DashboardGrid, the corresponding record on ComponentProperty should be deleted as well.
Is this possible? So far, I was only able to do the other way around, if I delete a ComponentProperty, the corresponding DashboardKpi or DashboardGrid gets deleted, but this is definitely not what I want.
ER Diagram
Any suggestion on how can I do?
Delete cascade wont help you. As you mentioned when you delete row cascade it will delete all other rows in other tables those referencing to original deleting row, after that your original row.
The reason of logic is that rows in ComponentProperty can be without DashboardKpi or DashboardGrid, but rows in DashboardKpi or DashboardGrid (if they have reference to ComponentProperty) cant not cause they depend on ComponentProperty.
You could solve your problem in different ways depending on your DBMS. Common to most of them is to use procedures or triggers. If you use Postgresql then you can use ON DELETE rule as well.
I have a simple datamodel in my database with three tables:
State
Ticket
SubTicket
One ticket can have zero to multiple subtickets.
Every ticket and every tubticket can have one state.
So my database looks like this:
between: xTicket and xState i have the constraint:
on update cascade / on delete no action (updating the StateID in xTicket when changed, probihit deleting the entry in xTicket)
between: xSubTicket and xTicket I have the constraint:
on update cascade / on delete cascade (updating the TicketID in xSubTicket and deleting an entry when an entry in xTicket is deleted)
but when I want to the same constraint as for xTicket and xState for:
on update cascade / on delete no action I get the following message:
Foreign key constraint may cause cycles or multiple cascade paths
the foreign key will only let me set the constraint ON UPDATE CASCADE to either between xTicket and xState or between xSubTicket and xState.
so far I have found other questions about the same issue, where I got to know: either change the database design properly or the use of INSTEAD OF Triggers. - I actually want to know why this design is not acceptable, what am I doing wrong? How do I do it correctly?
thanks for any suggestion in advance
I actually want to know why this design is not acceptable,
Why do you think ti is not acceptable? This is merely a limitation of SQL Server. An inconvenient one.
You are free to code around it and use triggers to do the cascading operations.
I would ague your design is broken because hard deleting states should never happen and you try to do the database do cleanup that may well be more complex. I would go for a soft delete (marking a state as not available for new objects) so the cascade operations make no sense there. But that is another discussion and outside of the topic of your question.
Let's say I have a Customers table with columns ID and CompanyId.
I need to delete some companies from the DB.
The problem is, the table has a lot of child tables and those tables also has a lot of child tables and so on...
Just to clarify, all the relationships are with constraints.
How can I accomplish that ?
Thanks.
EDIT: Notice that what i'm trying to do is a one time operation.
Whether i will change the constraints or add triggers or anything like that, I'm planning on removing it in the end.
The inbuilt solution to this problem is to set up your FK constraints with ON DELETE CASCADE.
However many people (myself included) are somewhat uneasy about doing this as a mistaken delete will silently propagate through the database.
Here are three ways:
Use a stored procedure to delete child first then up to the parent row in a transation.
I personally wouldn't make it dynamic and would have a specific "DeleteCompany" proc. Your may need a rule that such as "no delete if sales > 100 million" that needs checked
CASCADE DELETEs on your foreign keys
This can be tricky if you have multiple cascade paths, but simple otherwise
INSTEAD OF trigger
An INSTEAD OF trigger is like a stored procedure in operation. Note: You'll get an FK violation before an AFTER trigger fires
Personally, I'd use a stored proc so I have explicit deletes. The effect is the same as cascading FKs but more obvious.
For SQL Server 2008, this is the solution:
Generate Delete Statement From Foreign Key Relationships in SQL 2008?
With this solution, you can easily find the correct sequence of DELETE respecting, in the meantime, the foreign keys' relationships.
If you are interested in this theme, you can read also the ORACLE PL/SQL solution:
How to generate DELETE statements in PL/SQL, based on the tables FK relations?
Can anyone provide a clear explanation / example of what these functions do, and when it's appropriate to use them?
Straight from the manual...
We know that the foreign keys disallow creation of orders that do not relate to any products. But what if a product is removed after an order is created that references it? SQL allows you to handle that as well. Intuitively, we have a few options:
Disallow deleting a referenced product
Delete the orders as well
Something else?
CREATE TABLE order_items (
product_no integer REFERENCES products ON DELETE RESTRICT,
order_id integer REFERENCES orders ON DELETE CASCADE,
quantity integer,
PRIMARY KEY (product_no, order_id)
);
Restricting and cascading deletes are the two most common options. RESTRICT prevents deletion of a referenced row. NO ACTION means that if any referencing rows still exist when the constraint is checked, an error is raised; this is the default behavior if you do not specify anything. (The essential difference between these two choices is that NO ACTION allows the check to be deferred until later in the transaction, whereas RESTRICT does not.) CASCADE specifies that when a referenced row is deleted, row(s) referencing it should be automatically deleted as well. There are two other options: SET NULL and SET DEFAULT. These cause the referencing columns to be set to nulls or default values, respectively, when the referenced row is deleted. Note that these do not excuse you from observing any constraints. For example, if an action specifies SET DEFAULT but the default value would not satisfy the foreign key, the operation will fail.
Analogous to ON DELETE there is also ON UPDATE which is invoked when a referenced column is changed (updated). The possible actions are the same.
edit: You might want to take a look at this related question: When/Why to use Cascading in SQL Server?. The concepts behind the question/answers are the same.
I have a PostGreSQL database and I use On Delete when I have a user that I delete from the database and I need to delete it's information from other table. This ways I need to do only 1 delete and FK that has ON delete will delete information from other table.
You can do the same with ON Update. If you update the table and the field have a FK with On Update, if a change is made on the FK you will be noticed on the FK table.
What Daok says is true... it can be rather convenient. On the other hand, having things happen automagically in the database can be a real problem, especially when it comes to eliminating data. It's possible that in the future someone will count on the fact that FKs usually prevent deletion of parents when there are children and not realize that your use of On Delete Cascade not only doesn't prevent deletion, it makes huge amounts of data in dozens of other tables go away thanks to a waterfall of cascading deletes.
#Arthur's comment.
The more frequently "hidden" things happen in the database the less likely it becomes that anyone will ever have a good handle on what is going on. Triggers (and this is essentially a trigger) can cause my simple action of deleting a row, to have wide ranging consequences throughout my database. I issue a Delete statement and 17 tables are affected with cascades of triggers and constraints and none of this is immediately apparent to the issuer of the command. OTOH, If I place the deletion of the parent and all its children in a procedure then it is very easy and clear for anyone to see EXACTLY what is going to happen when I issue the command.
It has absolutely nothing to do with how well I design a database. It has everything to do with the operational issues introduced by triggers.
Instead of writing the method to do all the work, of the cascade delete or cascade update, you could simply write a warning message instead. A lot easier than reinventing the wheel, and it makes it clear to the client (and new developers picking up the code)