Foreign key issue:ERROR 1005 (HY000): Can't create table (errno: 150)

Question

I'm getting this error: ERROR 1005 (HY000): Can't create table (errno: 150); I know it has something to do with the foreign keys but I have checked to see if they have the same info types etc and I can't find the problem. The video, director actor, role and member create; the rest do not.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS actor (
  actorNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  actorName VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (actorNo)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;


CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS staff (
  StaffNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  name VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
  position VARCHAR(40) ,
  salary FLOAT(5,2) ,
  branchNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (branchNo) REFERENCES branch(branchNo),
  UNIQUE KEY (name,branchNo)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

SHOW TABLES;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS branch (
  branchNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  Street VARCHAR (40) ,
  City VARCHAR (20) ,
  State VARCHAR (40) ,
  zipCode VARCHAR (6) NOT NULL,
  StaffNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (branchNo),
  UNIQUE KEY (zipCode), FOREIGN KEY (StaffNo) REFERENCES staff (StaffNo) ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE 
CASCADE) ENGINE=InnoDB; 

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS director (
  directorNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  directorName VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (directorNo)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;   

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS member (
  fName VARCHAR(20) ,
  lName VARCHAR(20) ,
  address VARCHAR (100) ,
  memberNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (memberNo),
  UNIQUE KEY `CCfnmLnmAddr` (fName,lName,address)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;  

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS registration (
  branchNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  memberNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  StaffNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  dateJoined date NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (branchNo, memberNo), 
FOREIGN KEY (memberNo) REFERENCES member (memberNo) ON DELETE SET NULL ON UPDATE 
CASCADE, FOREIGN KEY (StaffNo) REFERENCES staff (StaffNo) ON DELETE SET NULL ON UPDATE 
CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS videoforrent (
  videoNo INT(15) NOT NULL,
  available CHAR(1) NOT NULL,
  catalogNo VARCHAR (15) ,
  branchNo  VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (videoNo),
  UNIQUE KEY CCAvailBrnchNoCatNo (available, branchNo,catalogNo), FOREIGN KEY (catalogNo) REFERENCES video (catalogNo) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE 
CASCADE, FOREIGN KEY (branchNo) REFERENCES branch (branchNo) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE 
CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS video (
  catalogNo VARCHAR(10) ,
  title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  category VARCHAR(30) ,
  dailyRental FLOAT(4,2) ,
  price FLOAT(5,2) ,
  directorNo VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (catalogNo),
  UNIQUE KEY `CCTitleDrNo` (title,directorNo)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS rentalagreement (
  rentalNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  dateOut DATE NOT NULL,
  dateReturn DATE ,
  memberNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  videoNo INT(15) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (rentalNo),
  UNIQUE KEY `CCdtOutMembrNoVidNo` (dateOut,memberNo,videoNo),
  FOREIGN KEY (videoNo) REFERENCES videoforrent (videoNo) ON DELETE SET NULL ON UPDATE 
CASCADE, FOREIGN KEY (memberNo) REFERENCES member (memberNo) ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE 
CASCADE) ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS role (
    actorNo VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
  catalogNo INT(11) NOT NULL,
  charachter VARCHAR(40),
  PRIMARY KEY (actorNo, catalogNo)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

Answer 1

You have FK definitions that will try to set a null value on non null columns. Therefore that FK declaration is impossible.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS registration (
  branchNo VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
  memberNo VARCHAR (15) **NOT NULL**,
  StaffNo VARCHAR (15) **NOT NULL**,
  dateJoined date NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (branchNo, memberNo), 
FOREIGN KEY (memberNo) REFERENCES member (memberNo) ON DELETE **SET NULL** ON UPDATE 
CASCADE, 
FOREIGN KEY (StaffNo) REFERENCES staff (StaffNo) ON DELETE **SET NULL** ON UPDATE 
CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

you can either set "on DELETE CASCADE" or allow those fields to be null.

You might have the same error on other tables. I just stopped at the first error I found :)

Answer 2

Solved:

Check to make sure Primary_Key and Foreign_Key are exact match with data types.

If one is signed another one unsigned, it will be failed.
Good practice is to make sure both are unsigned INT.