Question

I would like to know how you can prevent to use of two same tags in a database table.
One said me that use two private keys in a table. However, W3Schools -website says that it is impossible.

My relational table

alt text http://files.getdropbox.com/u/175564/db/db7.png

My logical table

alt text http://files.getdropbox.com/u/175564/db/db77.png

The context of tables

alt text http://files.getdropbox.com/u/175564/db/db777.png

How can you prevent the use of duplicate tags in a question?

Answer 1

I have updated my NORMA model to more closely match your diagram. I can see where you’ve made a few mistakes, but some of them may have been due to my earlier model.

I have updated this model to prevent duplicate tags. It didn’t really matter before. But since you want it, here it is (for Postgres):

START TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE, READ WRITE;

CREATE SCHEMA so;

SET search_path TO SO,"$user",public;

CREATE DOMAIN so.HashedPassword AS 
    BIGINT CONSTRAINT HashedPassword_Unsigned_Chk CHECK (VALUE >= 0);

CREATE TABLE so."User"
(
    USER_ID SERIAL NOT NULL,
    USER_NAME CHARACTER VARYING(50) NOT NULL,
    EMAIL_ADDRESS CHARACTER VARYING(256) NOT NULL,
    HASHED_PASSWORD so.HashedPassword NOT NULL,
    OPEN_ID CHARACTER VARYING(512),
    A_MODERATOR BOOLEAN,
    LOGGED_IN BOOLEAN,
    HAS_BEEN_SENT_A_MODERATOR_MESSAGE BOOLEAN,
    CONSTRAINT User_PK PRIMARY KEY(USER_ID)
);

CREATE TABLE so.Question
(
    QUESTION_ID SERIAL NOT NULL,
    TITLE CHARACTER VARYING(256) NOT NULL,
    WAS_SENT_AT_TIME TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    BODY CHARACTER VARYING NOT NULL,
    USER_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
    FLAGGED_FOR_MODERATOR_REMOVAL BOOLEAN,
    WAS_LAST_CHECKED_BY_MODERATOR_AT_TIME TIMESTAMP,
    CONSTRAINT Question_PK PRIMARY KEY(QUESTION_ID)
);

CREATE TABLE so.Tag
(
    TAG_ID SERIAL NOT NULL,
    TAG_NAME CHARACTER VARYING(20) NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT Tag_PK PRIMARY KEY(TAG_ID),
    CONSTRAINT Tag_UC UNIQUE(TAG_NAME)
);

CREATE TABLE so.QuestionTaggedTag
(
    QUESTION_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
    TAG_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT QuestionTaggedTag_PK PRIMARY KEY(QUESTION_ID, TAG_ID)
);

CREATE TABLE so.Answer
(
    ANSWER_ID SERIAL NOT NULL,
    BODY CHARACTER VARYING NOT NULL,
    USER_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
    QUESTION_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT Answer_PK PRIMARY KEY(ANSWER_ID)
);

ALTER TABLE so.Question 
    ADD CONSTRAINT Question_FK FOREIGN KEY (USER_ID) 
    REFERENCES so."User" (USER_ID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT;

ALTER TABLE so.QuestionTaggedTag 
    ADD CONSTRAINT QuestionTaggedTag_FK1 FOREIGN KEY (QUESTION_ID) 
    REFERENCES so.Question (QUESTION_ID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT;

ALTER TABLE so.QuestionTaggedTag 
    ADD CONSTRAINT QuestionTaggedTag_FK2 FOREIGN KEY (TAG_ID) 
    REFERENCES so.Tag (TAG_ID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT;

ALTER TABLE so.Answer 
    ADD CONSTRAINT Answer_FK1 FOREIGN KEY (USER_ID) 
    REFERENCES so."User" (USER_ID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT;

ALTER TABLE so.Answer 
    ADD CONSTRAINT Answer_FK2 FOREIGN KEY (QUESTION_ID) 
    REFERENCES so.Question (QUESTION_ID) ON DELETE RESTRICT ON UPDATE RESTRICT;

COMMIT WORK;

Note that there is now a separate Tag table with TAG_ID as the primary key. TAG_NAME is a separate column with a uniqueness constraint over it, preventing duplicate tags. The QuestionTaggedTag table now has (QUESTION_ID, TAG_ID), which is also its primary key.

I hope I didn’t go too far in answering this, but when I tried to write smaller answers, I kept having to untangle my earlier answers, and it seemed simpler just to post this.