Updating foreign keys while inserting into new table - sql

Question

I have table A(id).
I need to
create table B(id)
add a foreign key to table A that references to B.id
for every row in A, insert a row in B and update A.b_id with the newly inserted row in B
Is it possible to do it without adding a temporary column in B that refers to A? The below does work, but I'd rather not have to make a temporary column.
alter table B add column ref_id integer references(A.id);
insert into B (ref_id) select id from A;
update A set b_id = B.id from B where B.ref_id = A.id;
alter table B drop column ref_id;

Answer 1

Assuming that:
1) you're using postgresql 9.1
2) B.id is a serial (so actually an int with a default value of nextval('b_id_seq')
3) when inserting to B, you actually add other fields from A otherwise the insert is useless
...I think something like this would work:
with n as (select nextval('b_id_seq') as newbid,a.id as a_id from a),
l as (insert into b(id) select newbid from n returning id as b_id)
update a set b_id=l.b_id from l,n where a.id=n.a_id and l.b_id=n.newbid;

Answer 2

Add the future foreign key column, but without the constraint itself:
ALTER TABLE A ADD b_id integer;
Fill the new column with values:
WITH cte AS (
SELECT
id
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id) AS b_ref
FROM A
)
UPDATE A
SET b_id = cte.b_ref
FROM cte
WHERE A.id = cte.id;
Create the other table:
CREATE TABLE B (
id integer CONSTRAINT PK_B PRIMARY KEY
);
Add rows to the new table using the referencing column of the existing one:
INSERT INTO B (id)
SELECT b_id
FROM A;
Add the FOREIGN KEY constraint:
ALTER TABLE A
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_A_B FOREIGN KEY (b_id) REFERENCES B (id);

Answer 3

PostgeSQL dialect.
You might use an anonymous code block like this
do $$
declare
category_cursor cursor for select id from schema1.categories;
r_category bigint;
setting_id bigint;
begin
open category_cursor;
loop fetch category_cursor into r_category;
exit when not found;
insert into schema2.setting(field)
values ('field_value') returning id into setting_id;
update schema1.categories set category_setting_id = setting_id
where category_id = r_category;
end loop;
end; $$
Let assume we have two tables first - categories, second - settings which must be applied to these categories.
First step - declare cursor(collect ids from categories), and variabels where we store temporary data
Loop cursor inserting values 'field_value' into settings
Store id in variable setting_id
Update table categories with setting_id