Re: BUG #18295: In PostgreSQL a unique index on targeted columns is sufficient to support a foreign key

----- Mail original -----
De: "Laurenz Albe" <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
À: "gparc" <gparc@free.fr>, "pgsql-bugs" <pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>
Envoyé: Mercredi 24 Janvier 2024 16:28:45
Objet: Re: BUG #18295: In PostgreSQL a unique index on targeted columns is sufficient to support a foreign key

On Wed, 2024-01-24 at 11:11 +0100, gparc@free.fr wrote:
> coming from Oracle, I'm surprised to see that in PostgreSQL, a foreign key
> can be linked to a unique index
> on the target table and not exclusively to a primary key constraint or
> UNIQUE constraint.
>
> Is it a bug or an intended feature ? If the latter, I think the doc should
> be amended to remove any ambiguity.

Let's say it is an extension of the standard, but I cannot say if that is
intended or not.  At any rate, it has been like that for a very long time,
and changing it might make some users unhappy.

There is some added value, in that you could reference a unique index
that has an INCLUDE clause:

  CREATE TABLE parent (id integer, payload integer, other integer);

  CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON parent (id) INCLUDE (payload);

  CREATE TABLE child (id integer REFERENCES parent (id));

So it might well be seen as a feature.

Looking at the source, the function comment suggests that that undocumented
feature may be there by accident:

/*
 * transformFkeyCheckAttrs -
 *
 *  Make sure that the attributes of a referenced table belong to a unique
 *  (or primary key) constraint.  Return the OID of the index supporting
 *  the constraint, as well as the opclasses associated with the index
 *  columns.
 */

The comment is speaking about a constraint, not a unique index.

So perhaps the comment should be updated, along with a note in the documentation
(in ddl.html and ref/create_table.sgml).


> P.S. by the way, I don't know what the SQL standard states about that.

That is simple: since the standard doesn't know indexes, it can only talk
about referencing a constraint.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe


Thanks Laurenz for your detailed reply.
I agree also for an update of the documentation and source code.

Concerning, the documentation, I propose to modify in
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-constraints.html#DDL-CONSTRAINTS-FK
the following sentence :
"A foreign key must reference columns that either are a primary key or form a unique constraint.
 This means that the referenced columns always have an index (the one underlying the primary key or unique
constraint);"
by
"A foreign key must reference columns that either are a primary key or form a unique constraint or are specified in a
uniqueindex. 
 This means that the referenced columns are always backed by a UNIQUE index."

Regards
Gilles