PostgreSQL UNIQUE constraint and REFERENCES - sql

Question

Let's say I have a table tree and a table special_tree
CREATE TABLE tree VALUES (name VARCHAR(32) UNIQUE NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
type VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL);
CREATE TABLE special_tree VALUES (name NOT NULL REFERENCES tree(name),
treat_date DATE,
id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);
So I have a table containing a list of trees with unique names BUT I want to say that a tree can have multiple 'treat_date' (for various reasons).
Since tree(name) is unique I can't add 2 same name in special_tree.
Is the only solution is to remove unique from tree and then add everywhere i handle the tree table an IF statement to check if name isn't already there? (IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM tree where tree.name = ...))

Answer 1

If you consider the column name of the table tree it doesn't mean that all referenced columns also should have unique values. Take a look at this example

Answer 2

the best solution for this is (for MySQL):
CREATE TABLE tree VALUES (
id_t int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
name VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
type VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT tree_pk PRIMARY KEY (id_t));
CREATE TABLE special_tree VALUES (
id_st int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
id_t NOT NULL REFERENCES tree(id_t),
treat_date DATE,
CONSTRAINT special_tree_pk PRIMARY KEY (id_st));
for PostgreSQL:
CREATE TABLE tree VALUES (
id_t serial primary key,
name VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
type VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL);
CREATE TABLE special_tree VALUES (
id_st serial primary key,
id_t NOT NULL REFERENCES tree(id_t),
treat_date DATE);