Error code 1452 mysql workbench

I have created tables in MySQL Workbench as shown below :

ORDRE table:

CREATE TABLE Ordre (
  OrdreID   INT NOT NULL,
  OrdreDato DATE DEFAULT NULL,
  KundeID   INT  DEFAULT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT Ordre_pk PRIMARY KEY (OrdreID),
  CONSTRAINT Ordre_fk FOREIGN KEY (KundeID) REFERENCES Kunde (KundeID)
)
  ENGINE = InnoDB;

PRODUKT table:

CREATE TABLE Produkt (
  ProduktID          INT NOT NULL,
  ProduktBeskrivelse VARCHAR(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  ProduktFarge       VARCHAR(20)  DEFAULT NULL,
  Enhetpris          INT          DEFAULT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT Produkt_pk PRIMARY KEY (ProduktID)
)
  ENGINE = InnoDB;

and ORDRELINJE table:

CREATE TABLE Ordrelinje (
  Ordre         INT NOT NULL,
  Produkt       INT NOT NULL,
  AntallBestilt INT DEFAULT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT Ordrelinje_pk PRIMARY KEY (Ordre, Produkt),
  CONSTRAINT Ordrelinje_fk FOREIGN KEY (Ordre) REFERENCES Ordre (OrdreID),
  CONSTRAINT Ordrelinje_fk1 FOREIGN KEY (Produkt) REFERENCES Produkt (ProduktID)
)
  ENGINE = InnoDB;

so when I try to insert values into ORDRELINJE table i get:

Error Code: 1452. Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (srdjank.Ordrelinje, CONSTRAINT Ordrelinje_fk FOREIGN KEY (Ordre) REFERENCES Ordre (OrdreID))

I’ve seen the other posts on this topic, but no luck.
Am I overseeing something or any idea what to do?

Wondering how to resolve MySQL Error 1452? We can help you.

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Microsoft SQL Server Support Services.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team is ready to help customers with MySQL Error 1452.

How to resolve MySQL Error 1452?

Usually, this error occurs when we try to execute a data manipulation query into a table that has one or more failing foreign key constraints.

What causes MySQL Error 1452?

The cause of this error is the values we are trying to put into the table are not available in the referencing (parent) table.

When a column of a table is referenced from another table, it is called Foreign Key.

For example, consider a table City that contains the name of a city and its ID.

Also, there is another table Buddies to keep a record of people that we know who lives in different cities.

We have to reference the id column of the City table as the FOREIGN KEY of the city_id column in the friends table as follows:

CREATE TABLE friends (
firstName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
city_id int unsigned NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (firstName),
CONSTRAINT friends_ibfk_1
FOREIGN KEY (city_id) REFERENCES City (id)
)

In the code above, a CONSTRAINT named buddies_ibfk_1 is created for the city_id column, referencing the id column in the City table.

This CONSTRAINT means that only values in the id column can be inserted into the city_id column.

If we try to insert a value that is not present in id column into the city_id column, it will trigger the error as shown below:

ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row:
a foreign key constraint fails
(test_db.friends, CONSTRAINT friends_ibfk_1
FOREIGN KEY (city_id) REFERENCES city (id))

How to resolve it?

Today, let us see the steps followed by our Support Techs to resolve it:

There are two ways to fix the ERROR 1452 in MySQL database server:

1. Firstly, add the value into the referenced table
2. Then, disable the FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS in the server

1. Add the value into the referenced table

The first option is to add the value we need to the referenced table.

In the example above, add the required id value to the City table.

Now we can insert a new row in the Buddies table with the city_id value that we inserted.

Disabling the foreign key check

2. Disable the FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS variable in MySQL server.

We can check whether the variable is active or not by running the following query:

SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE ‘FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS’;

 — +——————–+——-+
— | Variable_name | Value |
— +——————–+——-+
— | foreign_key_checks | ON |
— +——————–+——-+

This variable causes MySQL to check any foreign key constraint added to our table(s) before inserting or updating.

We can disable the variable for the current session only or globally:

— set for the current session:
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;

— set globally:
SET GLOBAL FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;

Now we can INSERT or UPDATE rows in our table without triggering a foreign key constraint fails.

After we are done with the manipulation query, we can set the FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS active again by setting its value to 1:

— set for the current session:
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;

— set globally:
SET GLOBAL FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;

Turning off FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS variable will cause the city_id column to reference a NULL column in the City table.

It may cause problems when we need to perform a JOIN query later.

[Looking for a solution to another query? We are just a click away.]

Conclusion

To sum up, our skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated how to resolve MySQL Error 1452.

У меня немного странная проблема. Я пытаюсь добавить внешний ключ к одной таблице, которая ссылается на другую, но по какой-то причине она не работает. Имея мои ограниченные знания MySQL, единственное, что может быть подозрительным, это наличие внешнего ключа в другой таблице, ссылающейся на ту, которую я пытаюсь ссылаться.

Вот изображение моих связей в таблице, сгенерированное с помощью phpMyAdmin:
Отношения

Я выполнил запрос SHOW CREATE TABLE для обеих таблиц, sourcecodes_tags — это таблица с внешним ключом, sourcecodes — ссылочная таблица.

CREATE TABLE `sourcecodes` (
 `id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `user_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `language_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `category_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `title` varchar(40) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
 `description` text CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
 `views` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `downloads` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `time_posted` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
 PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
 KEY `user_id` (`user_id`),
 KEY `language_id` (`language_id`),
 KEY `category_id` (`category_id`),
 CONSTRAINT `sourcecodes_ibfk_3` FOREIGN KEY (`language_id`) REFERENCES `languages` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE,
 CONSTRAINT `sourcecodes_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`user_id`) REFERENCES `users` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE,
 CONSTRAINT `sourcecodes_ibfk_2` FOREIGN KEY (`category_id`) REFERENCES `categories` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=4 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

CREATE TABLE `sourcecodes_tags` (
 `sourcecode_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 `tag_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
 KEY `sourcecode_id` (`sourcecode_id`),
 KEY `tag_id` (`tag_id`),
 CONSTRAINT `sourcecodes_tags_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`tag_id`) REFERENCES `tags` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

Было бы здорово, если бы кто-нибудь мог рассказать мне, что здесь происходит, у меня не было формального обучения или чего-то еще с MySQL:)

Спасибо.

Изменить: Это код, который генерирует ошибку:

ALTER TABLE sourcecodes_tags ADD FOREIGN KEY (sourcecode_id) REFERENCES sourcecodes (id) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE

In MySQL, Enter a row in the child table without having row in the parent table

Example of insert row in Child table without having a row in Parent table MySQL

1. Create the table Parent P1 and Child C1.

mysql> create table p1(id integer primary key, name varchar(100));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)

mysql> create table c1(cid integer primary key, pid integer, foreign key (pid) references p1(id));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)

2. Insert data in the Parent and child table and child table throw error due to not presence of data in the parents table.

mysql> insert into p1 values (1,'a');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.03 sec)

mysql> insert into p1 values (2,'b');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> insert into c1 values (2,5);
ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`test`.`c1`, CONSTRAINT `c1_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`pid`) REFERENCES `p1` (`id`))

3. Disable the foreign key check and enable it.

mysql> SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> insert into c1 values (3,5);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

4. After enabling the foreign key check, the insert query throw error again.

mysql> insert into c1 values (4,5);
ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`test`.`c1`, CONSTRAINT `c1_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`pid`) REFERENCES `p1` (`id`))

5. Verify the data in both P1 and C1 tables.

mysql> select * from c1;
+-----+------+
| cid | pid  |
+-----+------+
|   3 |    5 |
+-----+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from p1;
+----+------+
| id | name |
+----+------+
|  1 | a    |
|  2 | b    |
+----+------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

This error comes whenever we add a foreign key constraint between tables and insert records into the child table. Let us see an example.

Creating the child table.

mysql> create table ChildDemo
   -> (
   -> id int,
   -> FKPK int
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.86 sec)

Creating the second table.

mysql> create table ParentDemo
   -> (
   -> FKPK int,
   -> Name varchar(100)
   -> ,
   -> primary key(FKPK)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.57 sec)

To add foreign key constraint.

mysql> alter table ChildDemo add constraint ConstChild foreign key(FKPK) references ParentDemo(FKPK);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.97 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

After creating foreign key constraint, whenever we insert records into the first table or child table, we will get the above error.

mysql> insert into ChildDemo values(1,3);
ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`business`.`childdemo`, CONSTRAINT `ConstChild` FOREIGN KEY (`FKPK`) REFERENCES `parentdemo` (`fkpk`))

The error comes when you are trying to add a row for which no matching row in in the other table.

As stated

“Foreign key relationships involve a parent table that holds the central data values, and a child table with identical values pointing back to its parent. The FOREIGN KEY clause is specified in the child table. It will reject any INSERT or UPDATE operation that attempts to create a foreign key value in a child table if there is no a matching candidate key value in the parent table.”

Finding out why Foreign key creation fail

When MySQL is unable to create a Foreign Key, it throws out this generic error message:

ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

– The most useful error message ever.

Fortunately, MySQL has this useful command that can give the actual reason about why it could not create the Foreign Key.

mysql> SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS;

That will print out lots of output but the part we are interested in is under the heading ‘LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR’:

------------------------
LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR
------------------------
2020-08-29 13:40:56 0x7f3cb452e700 Error in foreign key constraint of table test_database/my_table:
there is no index in referenced table which would contain
the columns as the first columns, or the data types in the
referenced table do not match the ones in table. Constraint:
,
CONSTRAINT idx_name FOREIGN KEY (employee_id) REFERENCES employees (id)
The index in the foreign key in table is idx_name
Please refer to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/innodb-foreign-key-constraints.html for correct foreign key definition.

This output could give you some clue about the actual reason why MySQL could not create your Foreign Key

Reason #1 – Missing unique index on the referenced table

This is probably the most common reason why MySQL won’t create your Foreign Key constraint. Let’s look at an example with a new database and new tables:

In the all below examples, we’ll use a simple ‘Employee to Department” relationship:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE foreign_key_1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE foreign_key_1;
Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     department_id int
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE departments(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.07 sec)

As you may have noticed, we have not created the table with PRIMARY KEY or unique indexes. Now let’s try to create Foreign Key constraint between employees.department_id column and departments.id column:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

Let’s look at the detailed error:

mysql> SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS;

------------------------
LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR
------------------------
2020-08-31 09:25:13 0x7fddc805f700 Error in foreign key constraint of table foreign_key_1/#sql-5ed_49b:
FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id):
Cannot find an index in the referenced table where the
referenced columns appear as the first columns, or column types
in the table and the referenced table do not match for constraint.
Note that the internal storage type of ENUM and SET changed in
tables created with >= InnoDB-4.1.12, and such columns in old tables
cannot be referenced by such columns in new tables.
Please refer to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/innodb-foreign-key-constraints.html for correct foreign key definition.

This is because we don’t have any unique index on the referenced table i.e. departments. We have two ways of fixing this:

Option 1: Primary Keys

Let’s fix this by adding a primary key departments.id

mysql> ALTER TABLE departments ADD PRIMARY KEY (id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.20 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.19 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

Option 2: Unique Index

mysql> CREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_department_id ON departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.13 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.21 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

Reason #2 – Different data types on the columns

MySQL requires the columns involved in the foreign key to be of the same data types.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE foreign_key_1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE foreign_key_1;
Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     department_id int,
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE departments(
    ->     id char(20),
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.07 sec)

You may have noticed that employees.department_id is int while departments.id is char(20). Let’s try to create a foreign key now:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

Let’s fix the type of departments.id and try to create the foreign key again:

mysql> ALTER TABLE departments MODIFY id INT;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.18 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.26 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

It works now!

Reason #3 – Different collation/charset type on the table

This is a surprising reason and hard to find out. Let’s create two tables with different collation (or also called charset):

Let’s start from scratch to explain this scenario:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE foreign_key_1;                                                                                        Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE foreign_key_1;                                                                                                    Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     department_id int,
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> ) ENGINE=InnoDB CHARACTER SET=utf8;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE departments(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> ) ENGINE=InnoDB CHARACTER SET=latin1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

You may notice that we are using a different character set (utf8 and latin1` for both these tables. Let’s try to create the foreign key:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

It failed because of different character sets. Let’s fix that.

mysql> SET foreign_key_checks = 0; ALTER TABLE departments CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci; SET foreign_key_checks = 1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.18 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.20 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

If you have many tables with a different collation/character set, use this script to generate a list of commands to fix all tables at once:

mysql --database=your_database -B -N -e "SHOW TABLES" | awk '{print "SET foreign_key_checks = 0; ALTER TABLE", $1, "CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci; SET foreign_key_checks = 1; "}'

Reason #4 – Different collation types on the columns

This is a rare reason, similar to reason #3 above but at a column level.

Let’s try to reproduce this from scratch:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE foreign_key_1;                                                                                        Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE foreign_key_1;                                                                                                    Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     department_id char(26) CHARACTER SET utf8,
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.07 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE departments(
    ->     id char(26) CHARACTER SET latin1,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

We are using a different character set for employees.department_id and departments.id (utf8 and latin1). Let’s check if the Foreign Key can be created:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

Nope, as expected. Let’s fix that by changing the character set of departments.id to match with employees.department_id:

mysql> ALTER TABLE departments MODIFY id CHAR(26) CHARACTER SET utf8;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.20 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.20 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

It works now!

Reason #5 -Inconsistent data

This would be the most obvious reason. A foreign key is to ensure that your data remains consistent between the parent and the child table. So when you are creating the foreign key, the existing data is expected to be already consistent.

Let’s setup some inconsistent data to reproduce this problem:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE foreign_key_1;                                                                                        Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE foreign_key_1;                                                                                                    Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     department_id int,
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE departments(
    ->     id int,
    ->     name varchar(20),
    ->     PRIMARY KEY (id)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

Let’s insert a department_id in employees table that will not exist in departments.id:

mysql> INSERT INTO employees VALUES (1, 'Amber', 145);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

Let’s create a foreign key now and see if it works:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);

ERROR 1452 (23000): Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`foreign_key_1`.`#sql-5ed_49b`, CONSTRAINT `fk_department_id` FOREIGN KEY (`department_id`) REFERENCES `departments` (`id`))

This error message is atleast more useful. We can fix this in two ways. Either by adding the missing department in departments table or by deleting all the employees with the missing department. We’ll do the first option now:

mysql> INSERT INTO departments VALUES (145, 'HR');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Let’s try to create the Foreign Key again:

mysql> ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT fk_department_id FOREIGN KEY idx_employees_department_id (department_id) REFERENCES departments(id);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.24 sec)
Records: 1  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

It worked this time.

So we have seen 5 different ways a Foreign Key creation can fail and possible solutions of how we can fix them. If you have encountered a reason not listed above, add them in the comments.

If you are using MySQL 8.x, the error message will be a little different:

SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 3780 Referencing column 'column' and referenced column 'id' in foreign key constraint 'idx_column_id' are incompatible.