TSQL foreign keys on views?

Question

I have a SQL-Server 2008 database and a schema which uses foreign key constraints to enforce referential integrity. Works as intended. Now the user creates views on the orig

Answer 1

It took me some time to figure out the misunderstaning here -- not sure if I still understand completely, but here it is. I will use an example, close to yours, but with some data -- easier for me to think in these terms.

So first two tables; A = Department B = Employee

CREATE TABLE Department
  ( 
   DepartmentID int PRIMARY KEY
  ,DepartmentName varchar(20)
  ,DepartmentColor varchar(10)
  )
GO 
CREATE TABLE Employee
  ( 
   EmployeeID int PRIMARY KEY
  ,EmployeeName varchar(20)
  ,DepartmentID int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Department ( DepartmentID )
  )
GO 

Now I'll toss some data in

INSERT  INTO Department
  ( DepartmentID, DepartmentName, DepartmentColor )
 SELECT 1, 'Accounting', 'RED' UNION
 SELECT 2, 'Engineering', 'BLUE' UNION
 SELECT 3, 'Sales', 'YELLOW'  UNION
 SELECT 4, 'Marketing', 'GREEN' ;

INSERT  INTO Employee
  ( EmployeeID, EmployeeName, DepartmentID )
 SELECT 1, 'Lyne', 1 UNION
 SELECT 2, 'Damir', 2 UNION
 SELECT 3, 'Sandy', 2 UNION
 SELECT 4, 'Steve', 3 UNION
 SELECT 5, 'Brian', 3 UNION
 SELECT 6, 'Susan', 3 UNION
    SELECT 7, 'Joe', 4 ;

So, now I'll create a view on the first table to filter some departments out.

CREATE VIEW dbo.BlueDepartments
AS
SELECT * FROM dbo.Department
WHERE DepartmentColor = 'BLUE'
GO

This returns

DepartmentID DepartmentName       DepartmentColor
------------ -------------------- ---------------
2            Engineering          BLUE

And per your example, I'll add a view for the second table which does not filter anything.

CREATE VIEW dbo.AllEmployees
AS
SELECT * FROM dbo.Employee
GO

This returns

EmployeeID  EmployeeName         DepartmentID
----------- -------------------- ------------
1           Lyne                 1
2           Damir                2
3           Sandy                2
4           Steve                3
5           Brian                3
6           Susan                3
7           Joe                  4

It seems to me that you think that Employee No 5, DepartmentID = 3 points to nowhere?

"You'll end up with entries in the second view that point nowhere."

Well, it points to the Department table DepartmentID = 3, as specified with the foreign key. Even if you try to join view on view nothing is broken:

SELECT  e.EmployeeID
       ,e.EmployeeName
       ,d.DepartmentID
       ,d.DepartmentName
       ,d.DepartmentColor
FROM    dbo.AllEmployees AS e
        JOIN dbo.BlueDepartments AS d ON d.DepartmentID = e.DepartmentID
        ORDER BY e.EmployeeID

Returns

EmployeeID  EmployeeName         DepartmentID DepartmentName       DepartmentColor
----------- -------------------- ------------ -------------------- ---------------
2           Damir                2            Engineering          BLUE
3           Sandy                2            Engineering          BLUE   

So nothing is broken here, the join simply did not find matching records for DepartmentID <> 2 This is actually the same as if I join tables and then include filter as in the first view:

SELECT  e.EmployeeID
       ,e.EmployeeName
       ,d.DepartmentID
       ,d.DepartmentName
       ,d.DepartmentColor
FROM    dbo.Employee AS e
        JOIN dbo.Department AS d ON d.DepartmentID = e.DepartmentID
        WHERE d.DepartmentColor = 'BLUE'
     ORDER BY e.EmployeeID

Returns again:

EmployeeID  EmployeeName         DepartmentID DepartmentName       DepartmentColor
----------- -------------------- ------------ -------------------- ---------------
2           Damir                2            Engineering          BLUE
3           Sandy                2            Engineering          BLUE

In both cases joins do not fail, they simply do as expected.

Now I will try to break the referential integrity through a view (there is no DepartmentID= 127)

INSERT  INTO dbo.AllEmployees
      ( EmployeeID, EmployeeName, DepartmentID )
VALUES( 10, 'Bob', 127 )

And this results in:

Msg 547, Level 16, State 0, Line 1
The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "FK__Employee__Depart__0519C6AF". The conflict occurred in database "Tinker_2", table "dbo.Department", column 'DepartmentID'.

If I try to delete a department through the view

DELETE FROM dbo.BlueDepartments
WHERE DepartmentID = 2

Which results in:

Msg 547, Level 16, State 0, Line 1
The DELETE statement conflicted with the REFERENCE constraint "FK__Employee__Depart__0519C6AF". The conflict occurred in database "Tinker_2", table "dbo.Employee", column 'DepartmentID'.

So constraints on underlying tables still apply.

Hope this helps, but then maybe I misunderstood your problem.