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Asked: 2026-05-21T06:45:19+00:00

I want to have a SQL table with two columns. One is a key

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I want to have a SQL table with two columns. One is a key into another table, the other holds a string literal. The idea is phone numbers can be entered either exactly (in which case the ID into the phonebook table is used) or as a wildcard (in which the string literal is used).

This means that one column in the table will hold a value, and the other will hold a NULL.

Is it possible to constrain a table in such a way that one column must have a value, and the other must be NULL? If both columns are NULL or both have a value, then the row is invalid.

I have a feeling that MySQL can’t do this (as it doesn’t seem to have a comprehensive toolbox when it comes to constraints), but it couldn’t hurt to ask.

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  1. Editorial Team

    I am not aware of a way to enforce such a constraint.

    As a workaround, you may consider to have two different columns: If you have one column for the data – containing the phonebook id or the string literal, and another column for the data type – either ‘exact’ or ‘wildcard’ -, you can set a NOT NULL constraint to both columns. One obvious drawback is that you cannot have a FK constraint to the phonebooks table any more.

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