Creating primary and foreign keys – Sybase 12.4.2 User Manual

Page 145

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CHAPTER 3 Working with Database Objects

125

Creating primary and foreign keys

The

CREATE TABLE

and

ALTER TABLE

statements allow many attributes of

tables to be set, including column constraints and checks. This section shows
how to set table attributes using the primary and foreign keys as an example.

Creating a primary
key

The following statement creates the same

skill

table as before, except that a

primary key is added:

CREATE TABLE skill (

skill_id INTEGER NOT NULL,

skill_name CHAR( 20 ) NOT NULL,

skill_type CHAR( 20 ) NOT NULL,

primary key( skill_id )

)

The primary key values must be unique for each row in the table which, in this
case, means that you cannot have more than one row with a given

skill_id

. Each

row in a table is uniquely identified by its primary key.

Columns in the primary key are not allowed to contain NULL. You must
specify

NOT NULL

on the column in the primary key.

Note

Adaptive Server IQ does not enforce multi-column primary keys. You

must specify the keyword

UNENFORCED

when you define a multi-column

primary key.

Creating a primary
key in Sybase Central

To create a primary key in Sybase Central:

1

Connect to the database.

2

Click the Tables folder for that database.

3

Right-click the table you wish to modify, and select Properties from the
pop-up menu to display its property sheet.

4

Click the Columns tab, select the column name, and either click Add to
Key or Remove from Key.

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