How to change constraint definition in PostgreSQL? - postgresql

I created a table in PostgreSQL like this:
CREATE TABLE Table1 (
Id varchar(100) PRIMARY KEY CHECK (Id ~ '^[a-z0-9]{3,15}$'),
...
);
This will automatically create a constraint called table1_id_check.
Now I would like to change the check constraint to
(Id ~ '^[a-z0-9]{3,}$')
How can I do this in PostgreSQL as a single statement without dropping the constraint and recreating it again?

Using multiple statements within a transaction works on all SQL dbms that support using this DDL in a transaction.
begin transaction;
alter table table1
drop constraint table1_id_check;
alter table table1
add constraint table1_id_check CHECK (Id ~ '^[a-z0-9]{3,}$');
commit;
PostgreSQL lets you use multiple clauses within an ALTER TABLE statement.
alter table table1
drop constraint table1_id_check,
add constraint table1_id_check CHECK (Id ~ '^[a-z0-9]{3,}$');

Related

How to drop constraint on postgers? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Drop foreign keys generally in POSTGRES
(3 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I have created a constraint this way:
ALTER TABLE varaus ADD FOREIGN KEY ( varaus_id ) REFERENCES kayttaja ( id );
But when trying to drop it:
ALTER TABLE varaus DROP CONSTRAINT varaus_id;
I get the error:
ERROR: constraint "varaus_id" of relation "varaus" does not exist
I have also tried:
ALTER TABLE varaus DROP CONSTRAINT varaus_fkey;
ALTER TABLE varaus DROP CONSTRAINT id;
You have to find the name of constraint first using below query -
select constraint_name
from information_schema.table_constraints
where table_schema = 'your_schema_name'
and table_name='varaus'
and constraint_name like 'fk_%'
Then use those names in below query -
ALTER TABLE varaus DROP CONSTRAINT constraint_name
Good example of why you should always name your constraints instead letting the DBMS generate a name. So instead of the initial creation of the FK use (for example)
alter table varaus add
constraint var2kay_fk
foreign key ( varaus_id )
references kayttaja ( id );

Set column as primary key if the table doesn't have a primary key

I have a column in db which has 5 columns but no primary key.
One of the columns is named myTable_id and is integer.
I want to check if the table has a primary key column. If it doesn't, then make myTable_id a primary key column and make it identity column. Is there a way to do this?
I tried with this:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
and I get syntax error in Management studio.
This checks if primary key exists, if not it is created
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND TABLE_NAME = 'Persons'
AND TABLE_SCHEMA ='dbo')
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE Persons ADD CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
END
ELSE
BEGIN
-- Key exists
END
fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/e165d/2
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
An IDENTITY constraint can't be added to an existing column, so how you add this needs to be your initial thought. There are two options:
Create a new table including a primary key with identity and drop the existing table
Create a new primary key column with identity and drop the existing 'P_ID' column
There is a third way, which is a better approach for very large tables via the ALTER TABLE...SWITCH statement. See Adding an IDENTITY to an existing column for an example of each. In answer to this question, if the table isn't too large, I recommend running the following:
-- Check that the table/column exist and no primary key is already on the table.
IF COL_LENGTH('PERSONS','P_ID') IS NOT NULL
AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' AND TABLE_NAME = 'PERSONS')
-- Add table schema to the WHERE clause above e.g. AND TABLE_SCHEMA ='dbo'
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
ADD P_ID_new int IDENTITY(1, 1)
GO
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
DROP COLUMN P_ID
GO
EXEC sp_rename 'PERSONS.P_ID_new', 'P_ID', 'Column'
GO
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_P_ID PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (P_ID)
GO
END
Notes:
By explicitly using the CONSTRAINT keyword the primary key constraint is given a particular name rather than depending on SQL Server to auto-assign a name.
Only include CLUSTERED on the PRIMARY KEY if the balance of searches for a particular P_ID and the amount of writing outweighs the benefits of clustering the table by some other index. See Create SQL IDENTITY as PRIMARY KEY.
You can check if primary key exists or not using OBJECTPROPERTY Transact SQL, use 'TableHasPrimaryKey' for the second arguments.
DECLARE #ISHASPRIMARYKEY INT;
SELECT #ISHASPRIMARYKEY = OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('PERSONS'), 'TABLEHASPRIMARYKEY');
IF #ISHASPRIMARYKEY IS NULL
BEGIN
-- generate identity column
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
DROP COLUMN P_ID;
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
ADD P_ID INT IDENTITY(1,1);
-- add primary key
ALTER TABLE PERSONS
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_PERSONID PRIMARY KEY (P_ID);
END;
I don't think you can do that. For making a column into an identity column I think you have to drop the table entirely.

update pg_constraint has no effect (postgres)

I tried to change all foreign keys in PostgreSQL at once to cascade on delete:
UPDATE pg_catalog.pg_constraint
SET confupdtype='c', confdeltype='c', confmatchtype='u'
WHERE connamespace=2200;
There are no errors, and when I inspect the tables with pgadmin, it looks right, but when I try to delete a referenced table-line it comes to a constraint error. Just the SQL statement works:
ALTER TABLE tblname
DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS fk3e2e4a8ff123848a;
ALTER TABLE tblname
ADD CONSTRAINT fk3e2e4a8ff123848a FOREIGN KEY (field)
REFERENCES othertable (id) MATCH SIMPLE
ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE;
Any idea why changing pg_catalog.pg_constraint is not working? even restarting the service after didn't help.
Really you shouldn't be updating pg_* tables.
Use a command like
ALTER TABLE YOURTABLE DISABLE TRIGGER;
Check this link out.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2011-10/msg00802.php

Foreign keys in postgresql can be violated by trigger

I've created some tables in postgres, added a foreign key from one table to another and set ON DELETE to CASCADE. Strangely enough, I have some fields that appear to be violating this constraint.
Is this normal behaviour? And if so, is there a way to get the behaviour I want (no violations possible)?
Edit:
I orginaly created the foreign key as part of CREATE TABLE, just using
... REFERENCES product (id) ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE
The current code pgAdmin3 gives is
ALTER TABLE cultivar
ADD CONSTRAINT cultivar_id_fkey FOREIGN KEY (id)
REFERENCES product (id) MATCH SIMPLE
ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE;
Edit 2:
To Clarify, I have a sneaking suspicion that the constraints are only checked when updates/inserts happen but are then never looked at again. Unfortunately I don't know enough about postgres to find out if this is true or how fields could end up in the database without those checks being run.
If this is the case, is there some way to check all the foreign keys and fix those problems?
Edit 3:
A constraint violation can be caused by a faulty trigger, see below
I tried to create a simple example that shows foreign key constraint being enforced. With this example I prove I'm not allowed to enter data that violates the fk and I prove that if the fk is not in place during insert, and I enable the fk, the fk constraint throws an error telling me data violates the fk. So I'm not seeing how you have data in the table that violates a fk that is in place. I'm on 9.0, but this should not be different on 8.3. If you can show a working example that proves your issue that might help.
--CREATE TABLES--
CREATE TABLE parent
(
parent_id integer NOT NULL,
first_name character varying(50) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_parent PRIMARY KEY (parent_id)
)
WITH (
OIDS=FALSE
);
ALTER TABLE parent OWNER TO postgres;
CREATE TABLE child
(
child_id integer NOT NULL,
parent_id integer NOT NULL,
first_name character varying(50) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_child PRIMARY KEY (child_id),
CONSTRAINT fk1_child FOREIGN KEY (parent_id)
REFERENCES parent (parent_id) MATCH SIMPLE
ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE
)
WITH (
OIDS=FALSE
);
ALTER TABLE child OWNER TO postgres;
--CREATE TABLES--
--INSERT TEST DATA--
INSERT INTO parent(parent_id,first_name)
SELECT 1,'Daddy'
UNION
SELECT 2,'Mommy';
INSERT INTO child(child_id,parent_id,first_name)
SELECT 1,1,'Billy'
UNION
SELECT 2,1,'Jenny'
UNION
SELECT 3,1,'Kimmy'
UNION
SELECT 4,2,'Billy'
UNION
SELECT 5,2,'Jenny'
UNION
SELECT 6,2,'Kimmy';
--INSERT TEST DATA--
--SHOW THE DATA WE HAVE--
select parent.first_name,
child.first_name
from parent
inner join child
on child.parent_id = parent.parent_id
order by parent.first_name, child.first_name asc;
--SHOW THE DATA WE HAVE--
--DELETE PARENT WHO HAS CHILDREN--
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
delete from parent
where parent_id = 1;
--Check to see if any children that were linked to Daddy are still there?
--None there so the cascade delete worked.
select parent.first_name,
child.first_name
from parent
right outer join child
on child.parent_id = parent.parent_id
order by parent.first_name, child.first_name asc;
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
--TRY ALLOW NO REFERENTIAL DATA IN--
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
--Get rid of fk constraint so we can insert red headed step child
ALTER TABLE child DROP CONSTRAINT fk1_child;
INSERT INTO child(child_id,parent_id,first_name)
SELECT 7,99999,'Red Headed Step Child';
select parent.first_name,
child.first_name
from parent
right outer join child
on child.parent_id = parent.parent_id
order by parent.first_name, child.first_name asc;
--Will throw FK check violation because parent 99999 doesn't exist in parent table
ALTER TABLE child
ADD CONSTRAINT fk1_child FOREIGN KEY (parent_id)
REFERENCES parent (parent_id) MATCH SIMPLE
ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE;
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
--TRY ALLOW NO REFERENTIAL DATA IN--
--DROP TABLE parent;
--DROP TABLE child;
Everything I've read so far seems to suggest that constraints are only checked when the data is inserted. (Or when the constraint is created) For example the manual on set constraints.
This makes sense and - if the database works properly - should be good enough. I'm still curious how I managed to circumvent this or if I just read the situation wrong and there was never a real constraint violation to begin with.
Either way, case closed :-/
------- UPDATE --------
There was definitely a constraint violation, caused by a faulty trigger. Here's a script to replicate:
-- Create master table
CREATE TABLE product
(
id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
);
-- Create second table, referencing the first
CREATE TABLE example
(
id int PRIMARY KEY REFERENCES product (id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);
-- Create a (broken) trigger function
--CREATE LANGUAGE plpgsql;
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION delete_product()
RETURNS trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
DELETE FROM product WHERE product.id = OLD.id;
-- This is an error!
RETURN null;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
-- Add it to the second table
CREATE TRIGGER example_delete
BEFORE DELETE
ON example
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE delete_product();
-- Now lets add a row
INSERT INTO product (id) VALUES (1);
INSERT INTO example (id) VALUES (1);
-- And now lets delete the row
DELETE FROM example WHERE id = 1;
/*
Now if everything is working, this should return two columns:
(pid,eid)=(1,1). However, it returns only the example id, so
(pid,eid)=(0,1). This means the foreign key constraint on the
example table is violated.
*/
SELECT product.id AS pid, example.id AS eid FROM product FULL JOIN example ON product.id = example.id;

T-SQL foreign key check constraint

When you create a foreign key constraint in a table and you create the script in MS SQL Management Studio, it looks like this.
ALTER TABLE T1 WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT FK_T1 FOREIGN KEY(project_id)
REFERENCES T2 (project_id)
GO
ALTER TABLE T1 CHECK CONSTRAINT FK_T1
GO
What I don't understand is what purpose has the second alter with check constraint.
Isn't creating the FK constraint enough? Do you have to add the check constraint to assure reference integrity ?
Another question: how would it look like then when you'd write it directly in the column definition?
CREATE TABLE T1 (
my_column INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT FK_T1 REFERENCES T2(my_column)
)
Isn't this enough?
First it creates the constraint and here you can specify whether data allready in the table should be checked or not against your new constraint. WITH { CHECK | NOCHECK }
The second part specifies that the constraint is enabled. ALTER TABLE TableName { CHECK | NOCHECK } CONSTRAINT ConstraintName
The second statement is compelled by the "WITH CHECK" in the first statement. There is a setting you can toggle to not do this.