Error Code: 1822. Failed to add the foreign key constraint. Missing index for constraint 'questions_ibfk_1' in the referenced table 'category' - mysql-workbench

Question

cannot add foreign key constraint to table
create table users
(
user_id int auto_increment primary key not null,
username varchar(50) unique null ,
email varchar(50) unique ,
passwords varchar(50) not null,
login_status boolean not null
);
create table category (
category_id int primary key not null,
category_name varchar(50) not null
);
create table answers (
id_answer int auto_increment primary key not null,
answer boolean not null
);
create table questions (
question_id int primary key not null,
category_name varchar(50) not null,
content varchar(50) not null ,
foreign key (category_name) references category (category_name)
);

Answer 1

You get this error because there's no index on category_name in the category table. Change that CREATE statement as follows:
create table category (
category_id int primary key not null,
category_name varchar(50) not null,
KEY category_name_index (category_name)
);
From the docs (8.0 version, but the statement is true for older versions):
MySQL requires indexes on foreign keys and referenced keys so that foreign key checks can be fast and not require a table scan. In the referencing table, there must be an index where the foreign key columns are listed as the first columns in the same order. Such an index is created on the referencing table automatically if it does not exist. This index might be silently dropped later, if you create another index that can be used to enforce the foreign key constraint. index_name, if given, is used as described previously.
Also, you're using a varchar(50) as your foreign key, which is not usually a great idea for a variety of reasons. You probably want to use a numeric value, such as category_id, instead.