[sql] PostgreSQL: FOREIGN KEY/ON DELETE CASCADE

Excerpt from PostgreSQL documentation:

Restricting and cascading deletes are the two most common options. [...] CASCADE specifies that when a referenced row is deleted, row(s) referencing it should be automatically deleted as well.

This means that if you delete a category – referenced by books – the referencing book will also be deleted by ON DELETE CASCADE.

Example:

CREATE SCHEMA shire;

CREATE TABLE shire.clans (
    id serial PRIMARY KEY,
    clan varchar
);

CREATE TABLE shire.hobbits (
    id serial PRIMARY KEY,
    hobbit varchar,
    clan_id integer REFERENCES shire.clans (id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);

DELETE FROM clans will CASCADE to hobbits by REFERENCES.

sauron@mordor> psql
sauron=# SELECT * FROM shire.clans;
 id |    clan    
----+------------
  1 | Baggins
  2 | Gamgi
(2 rows)

sauron=# SELECT * FROM shire.hobbits;
 id |  hobbit  | clan_id 
----+----------+---------
  1 | Bilbo    |       1
  2 | Frodo    |       1
  3 | Samwise  |       2
(3 rows)

sauron=# DELETE FROM shire.clans WHERE id = 1 RETURNING *;
 id |  clan   
----+---------
  1 | Baggins
(1 row)

DELETE 1
sauron=# SELECT * FROM shire.hobbits;
 id |  hobbit  | clan_id 
----+----------+---------
  3 | Samwise  |       2
(1 row)

If you really need the opposite (checked by the database), you will have to write a trigger!

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