Creating a compund constraint

  • As a newbie db designer, I am having trouble creating a compound constraint.

    I have two columns, both have many values which are duplicate, but I need them together to have unique values. e.g.

    Column A Column B

    BST AFR

    BST ABC

    C&E AFR

    However, SQL keeps telling me that there are duplicates when I try and create the key. Also, I would like one of the columns to have null values, can I do this and have the constraint?

    Regards

    Anthony Fletcher Rogers

  • You can use constraints on muliple columns with null values.

    Have you checked your table to make sure it doesn't already have a duplicate combination?

    suggestion:

    select col_a, col_b, count(*)

    from table

    group by col_a, col_b

    having count(*) > 1

    This will verify that what you want to constrain hasn't already been violated.

    Check out 'constraints unique' in Books OnLine.



    Michelle

  • Thanks for your help, rogue duplicates was the cause of the problem!

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