Question

When inserting records to a database table which has a 1:m relationship to another table, is it not best practise to ensure that the related table is updated (inserted) with a new record? Is there any consequence if just one of the related tables is updated?

Also, if I update the table on the m side of the relationship (for example, a relationship of cars and wheels where one car can have many wheels but a wheel can only belong to one car), should I always insert the foreign key as an explicit parameter? E.g. if the other related table has a PK system of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and going up in a unique fashion, should I just insert the foreign key value as a value through a stored procedure?

EDIT: This sounds very n00bish but unfortunately I have only learnt/learning database design and Sql Server in particular from self practise (no formal training).

Answer 1

Let’s use your example..

car:     car_id     name  wheel:     wheel_id     car_id 

If your first question is asking if you should ensure that there is a corresponding row in the car table when you insert a record into the wheel table, then yes! In reality, if your RDBMS is set up correctly with foreign keys, then you won’t be able to insert a row into the wheel table without a parent row in car.

I think this may address your second question too. If not, could you elaborate?