Dropping unique constraint on foreign key reference of junction table - postgresql

I'm creating a database in PostgreSQL and want to include a many-to-many relationship between the tables. The two tables I want to include are as follows:
CREATE TABLE "meter" (
"id" integer PRIMARY KEY,
"nmi" integer,
"next_scheduled_read_date" timestamp
);
CREATE TABLE "register" (
"id" text PRIMARY KEY,
"value" text
);
The many-to-many relationship I want to have is between meter id and register id. I have then created the junction table below:
CREATE TABLE "meter_registers" (
"meter_id" integer NOT NULL,
"register_id" text NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ("meter_id", "register_id"),
FOREIGN KEY ("meter_id") REFERENCES "meter" ("id") ON UPDATE CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY ("register_id") REFERENCES "register" ("id") ON UPDATE CASCADE
);
I then want to create a table that references the meter_id and register_id values from the junction table above which is structured as follows:
CREATE TABLE "demand_data" (
"upload_id" integer PRIMARY KEY,
"nmi" integer,
"meter" integer,
"register" text,
"start" timestamp,
"end" timestamp,
"duration" Time,
"demand" double precision
);
Where the meter and register reference the corresponding junction table columns. However, as the values of the junction table will not be unique I can't simply add a foreign key for the meter and register columns so I run into an error when I run the following:
ALTER TABLE "demand_data" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("meter") REFERENCES "meter_registers" ("meter_id");
ALTER TABLE "demand_data" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("register") REFERENCES "meter_registers" ("register_id");
ERROR: there is no unique constraint matching given keys for referenced table "meter_registers"
Is there a way to possibly reference the junction table columns in the demand_data table without the foreign key constraint? I know it's possible to do with a separate query once some data has been added using inner joins however, is it possible to do it through database table set up?

Yes. A compound foreign key.
ALTER TABLE "demand_data"
ADD FOREIGN KEY ("meter","register")
REFERENCES "meter_registers"( "meter_id", "register_id");
Note: Not directly related you should avoid those dreaded double quotes.

If demand_data references meter_registers, it should reference its primary key. So add a single foreign key constraint on both columns.
If you want two separate foreign keys,you should probably reference meter and register directly.

Related

there is no unique constraint matching given keys for referenced table "category"?

I'm trying to define more than one foreign key in the process table. but I am getting the error that the columns I am trying to define as foreign key are not 'unique value'.
For this, I wanted to define id and name columns as primary keys in category and subject tables. However, when I want to create the process table, I still get this error." there is no unique constraint matching given keys for referenced table "category"
I have researched and continue to do so on Stackoverflow and many more. but I couldn't figure it out with solutions or viewpoints of the issues that got the same error I was facing. Maybe there is something I'm not seeing.
first table;
CREATE TABLE category(
category_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
category_name VARCHAR(210),
category_description TEXT,
CONSTRAINT category_pk PRIMARY KEY(category_id,category_name)
);
second table;
CREATE TABLE subject(
subject_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
subject_name VARCHAR(210),
subject_description TEXT,
CONSTRAINT subject_pk PRIMARY KEY(subject_id,subject_name)
);
I tried that too but I keep getting the same error
ALTER TABLE category ADD CONSTRAINT some_constraint PRIMARY KEY(category_id,category_name);
third table;
CREATE TABLE process(
process_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
fk_category_id INTEGER,
fk_subject_id INTEGER,
FOREIGN KEY(fk_category_id) REFERENCES category(category_id) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE
CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY(fk_subject_id) REFERENCES subject(subject_id) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE
CASCADE
);
In your FOREIGN KEY declaration either:
Include both the columns that make up the PRIMARY KEY on category and subject e.g. ... REFERENCES category(category_id, category_name) ...
OR
Do not refer to any column and let the FK pick up the PK automatically e.g. ... REFERENCES category ON DELETE ....
I am going to say that what you are really after is:
CREATE TABLE category(
category_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
category_name VARCHAR(210) UNIQUE,
category_description TEXT
);
CREATE TABLE subject(
subject_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
subject_name VARCHAR(210) UNIQUE,
subject_description TEXT
);
CREATE TABLE process(
process_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
fk_category_id INTEGER,
fk_subject_id INTEGER,
FOREIGN KEY(fk_category_id) REFERENCES category ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE
CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY(fk_subject_id) REFERENCES subject ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE
CASCADE
);
An identity column isn't automatically a primary key. So your tables category and subjectdon't have any primary keys and thus can't be referenced by a foreign key.
You need to add PRIMARY KEY to the columns of the tables category and subject

Citus: How can I add self referencing table in distributed tables list

I'm trying to run create_distributed_table for tables which i need to shard and almost all of the tables have self relation ( parent child )
but when I run SELECT create_distributed_table('table-name','id');
it throws error cannot create foreign key constraint
simple steps to reproduce
CREATE TABLE TEST (
ID TEXT NOT NULL,
NAME CHARACTER VARYING(255) NOT NULL,
PARENT_ID TEXT
);
ALTER TABLE TEST ADD CONSTRAINT TEST_PK PRIMARY KEY (ID);
ALTER TABLE TEST ADD CONSTRAINT TEST_PARENT_FK FOREIGN KEY (PARENT_ID) REFERENCES TEST (ID);
ERROR
citus=> SELECT create_distributed_table('test','id');
ERROR: cannot create foreign key constraint
DETAIL: Foreign keys are supported in two cases, either in between two colocated tables including partition column in the same ordinal in the both tables or from distributed to reference tables
For the time being, it is not possible to shard a table on PostgreSQL without dropping the self referencing foreign key constraints, or altering them to include a separate and new distribution column.
Citus places records into shards based on the hash values of the distribution column values. It is most likely the case that the hashes of parent and child id values are different and hence the records should be stored in different shards, and possibly on different worker nodes. PostgreSQL does not have a mechanism to create foreign key constraints that reference records on different PostgreSQL clusters.
Consider adding a new column tenant_id and adding this column to the primary key and foreign key constraints.
CREATE TABLE TEST (
tenant_id INT NOT NULL,
id TEXT NOT NULL,
name CHARACTER VARYING(255) NOT NULL,
parent_id TEXT NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (tenant_id, parent_id) REFERENCES test(tenant_id, id),
PRIMARY KEY (tenant_id, id)
);
SELECT create_distributed_table('test','tenant_id');
Note that parent and child should always be in the same tenant for this to work.

How to use timescale hypertables with foreign keys and keep a one-to-many relation?

I am trying to create a database with minimum redundancy in mind. We would like to use the timescaledb hypertables (I run postgreSQL v. 12 and timescaledb v. 1.7.4). The postgreSQL code to create the tables are as follows - you can see the dbdiagram here https://dbdiagram.io/d/5f992f0e3a78976d7b797ca2 or view the tables here Image of database
CREATE TABLE "datapoints" (
"id" bigserial UNIQUE NOT NULL,
"tstz" timestamptz NOT NULL,
"entity_id" bigint NOT NULL,
"value" real NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ("tstz", "entity_id")
);
CREATE TABLE "datapoint_quality" (
"tstz" timestamptz NOT NULL,
"datapoint_id" bigint NOT NULL,
"flag_id" bigint NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ("tstz", "datapoint_id", "flag_id")
);
CREATE TABLE "quality_flags" (
"id" bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
"value" text
);
CREATE TABLE "sensor_types" (
"id" bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
"name" text UNIQUE NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE "sensors" (
"tstz" timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT (now()),
"id" bigserial UNIQUE NOT NULL,
"name" text NOT NULL,
"parent" bigint NOT NULL,
"type" bigint NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ("tstz", "id")
);
CREATE TABLE "datapoint_annotation" (
"tstz" timestamptz NOT NULL,
"datapoint_id" bigint NOT NULL,
"annotation_id" bigint NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ("tstz", "datapoint_id", "annotation_id")
);
CREATE TABLE "annotations" (
"id" bigserial PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
"value" text NOT NULL
);
ALTER TABLE "datapoints" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("entity_id") REFERENCES "sensors" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "datapoint_quality" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("datapoint_id") REFERENCES "datapoints" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "datapoint_quality" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("flag_id") REFERENCES "quality_flags" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "sensors" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("parent") REFERENCES "sensors" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "sensors" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("type") REFERENCES "sensor_types" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "datapoint_annotation" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("datapoint_id") REFERENCES "datapoints" ("id");
ALTER TABLE "datapoint_annotation" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("annotation_id") REFERENCES "annotations" ("id");
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON "quality_flags" ("value");
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON "annotations" ("value");
So far so good - next I want to create the hypertables, which I do as:
SELECT create_hypertable('datapoint_annotation', 'tstz');
SELECT create_hypertable('datapoint_quality', 'tstz');
SELECT create_hypertable('datapoints', 'tstz');
SELECT create_hypertable('sensors', 'tstz');
This works well for the first two lines, but for the latter two I get the following error:
ERROR: cannot create a unique index without the column "tstz" (used in partitioning)
SQL state: TS103
I can include the tstz in the primary key as ("id", "tstz") and use that as foreign key, but this gives me a one-to-one relation, and for minimum redundancy I would like to have a one-to-many relation.
I am sure there should be some way to do this - so what am I missing?
I'll take the foreign key constraint from datapoint_quality to datapoints as an example.
To make that work with a partitioned table, you need a unique constraint on datapoint. As the error message tell you, such a constraint must contain the partitioning key. So you end up with
ALTER TABLE datapoints ADD UNIQUE (id, tstz);
To reference that unique constraint from datapoint_quality, you need to have the timestamp there too:
ALTER TABLE datapoint_quality ADD datapoints_tstz timestamp with time zone;
You have to fill it with the appropriate values:
UPDATE datapoint_quality AS dq
SET datapoints_tstz = d.tstz
FROM datapoints AS d
WHERE d.id = dq.datapoint_id;
Then set it NOT NULL:
ALTER TABLE datapoint_quality ALTER datapoints_tstz SET NOT NULL;
Now you can define your foreign key:
ALTER TABLE datapoint_quality
ADD FOREIGN KEY (datapoint_id, datapoints_tstz)
REFERENCES datapoints (id, tstz) MATCH FULL;
There is no other way to have foreign key constraints with partitioned tables.
After testing the proposed solution by Laurenz in a database I have and also after replicating the original database of this case. I use PostgreSQL 12.6 and timescaledb 1.7.5.
Basically, I arrived well until defining the Foreign Key for Table datapoint_quality:
ALTER TABLE datapoint_quality
ADD FOREIGN KEY (datapoint_id, datapoints_tstz)
REFERENCES datapoints (id, tstz) MATCH FULL;
The next error is present in both databases I've tested after several attempts (included above one) to define the foreign key to a hypertable:
ERROR: foreign keys to hypertables are not supported Blockquote SQL state: 0A000
According to https://docs.timescale.com/timescaledb/latest/overview/limitations/##distributed-hypertable-limitations, it looks like the above error is part of the hypertable limitations:
Foreign key constraints referencing a hypertable are not supported.
Considering this, does anyone know any solution at the DB level to establish the relationships (1..* or ...) among a table without hypertables to other tables with hypertables behind?
Maybe could be a solution to deal with this at even a REST API level (e.g. Django or Flask) given at timescaledb or PostgreSQL I have not found much more solutions.

PostgreSQL tables creation with wrong order

I have an .sql file, that creates lots of tables, that are related to each other.
I made other file for testing, that holds only two statements:
CREATE TABLE "USER" (
"id" bigint NOT NULL,
"name" varchar(50),
PRIMARY KEY ("id"));
CREATE TABLE "PERSON" (
"id" bigint NOT NULL,
"name" varchar(50),
"user" bigint,
PRIMARY KEY ("id"),
CONSTRAINT "fk_user" FOREIGN KEY ("user") REFERENCES "USER" ("id"));
This works fine if i'm trying to execute such file, but if i have other order - where table "PERSON" is created first - i'm getting ERROR: relation "USER" does not exist.
Is it possible to make some changes (or use some additional options when running 'psql' command), leaving the order as it is, to make it work?
EDIT: I understand why this error happens in given case, but i was thinking about some solution, where i don't need to change the order of my CREATE statements (Imagine you have hundreds of tables)... In MySQL you can simply use SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; and this will work. Do i have similar possibilities in PostgreSQL?
If you want table a to reference table b, you must either create table b before table a, or add the foreign key reference after creation:
ALTER TABLE a ADD FOREIGN KEY (a_col) REFERENCES b(b_col);
That works to create two tables that reference each other, too, but you won't be able to create rows unless you make one of them DEFERRABLE INITIALLY DEFERRED.
You are getting the error because at the point you are creating the foreign key on the the PERSON table it references the USER table which does not exist yet.
You can work round this issue by separating out FOREIGN KEY CONSTRAINT into it's own statement and applying this after you have created both tables:
CREATE TABLE "PERSON" (
"id" bigint NOT NULL,
"name" varchar(50),
"user" bigint,
PRIMARY KEY ("id"));
CREATE TABLE "USER" (
"id" bigint NOT NULL,
"name" varchar(50),
PRIMARY KEY ("id"));
ALTER TABLE "PERSON"
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_user
FOREIGN KEY ("user")
REFERENCES "USER" (id);

Will a primary key index serve as an index for a foreign key when fk columns are subset of pk?

I have a table where part of the primary key is a foreign key to another table.
create table player_result (
event_id integer not null,
pub_time timestamp not null,
name_key varchar(128) not null,
email_address varchar(128),
withdrawn boolean not null,
place integer,
realized_values hstore,
primary key (event_id, pub_time, name_key),
foreign key (email_address) references email(address),
foreign key (event_id, pub_time) references event_publish(event_id, pub_time));
Will the index generated for the primary key suffice to back the foreign key on event_id and pub_time?
Yes.
Index A,B,C
is good for:
A
A,B
A,B,C (and any other combination of the full 3 fields, if default order is unimportant)
but not good for other combinations (such as B,C, C,A etc.).
It will be useful for the referencing side, such that a DELETE or UPDATE on the referenced table can use the PRIMARY KEY of the referencing side as an index when performing checks for the existence of referencing rows or running cascade update/deletes. PostgreSQL doesn't require this index to exist at all, it just makes foreign key constraint checks faster if it is there.
It is not sufficient to serve as the unique constraint for a reference to those columns. You couldn't create a FOREIGN KEY that REFERENCES player_result(event_id, pub_time) because there is no unique constraint on those columns. That pair can appear multiple times in the table so long as each pair has a different name_key.
As #xagyg accurately notes, the unique b-tree index created by the foreign key reference is also only useful for references to columns from the left of the index. It could not be used for a lookup of pub_time, name_key or just name_key, for example.