Question

This question is pretty much similar to this one, but for SQL Server 2005 :

I have 2 tables in my database:

--'#' denotes the primary key
[Libraries]
#ID   #Application  Name
 1     MyApp        Title 1
 2     MyApp        Title 2


[Content]
#ID   Application  LibraryID  Content
 10    MyApp       1          xxx
 11    MyApp       1          yyy

(the database is obviously much more complex and having this double key makes sense)

Each library is identified by its unique ID and Application name. I’m trying to ensure that each content is properly referencing an existing library.

When creating the constraint (using the Wizard) as

Primary key table            Foreign key table
[Libraries]                  [Content]
ID                  --->     LibraryID
Application         --->     Application

I have the following error:

The columns in table ‘Libraries’ do
not match an existing primary key or
UNIQUE constraint

Do you have any idea of what is going on? and if it’s possible at all using SQL Server? (I can’t modify the [Library] table at all)

Thanks a lot for your help!

Answer 1

Of course it’s possible to create a foreign key relationship to a compound (more than one column) primary key. You didn’t show us the statement you’re using to try and create that relationship – it should be something like:

ALTER TABLE dbo.Content
   ADD CONSTRAINT FK_Content_Libraries
   FOREIGN KEY(LibraryID, Application)
   REFERENCES dbo.Libraries(ID, Application)

Is that what you’re using?? If (ID, Application) is indeed the primary key on dbo.Libraries, this statement should definitely work.

Luk: just to check – can you run this statement in your database and report back what the output is??

SELECT
    tc.TABLE_NAME,
    tc.CONSTRAINT_NAME, 
    ccu.COLUMN_NAME
FROM 
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS tc
INNER JOIN 
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE ccu 
      ON ccu.TABLE_NAME = tc.TABLE_NAME AND ccu.CONSTRAINT_NAME = tc.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE
    tc.TABLE_NAME IN ('Libraries', 'Content')