Re: Example. Foreign Keys Constraints. Wrong Columns
Yushu Chen <gentcys@gmail.com>
From: Yushu Chen <gentcys@gmail.com>
To: "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>,
postgresql.org.reach457@passmail.net, pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2026-04-17T15:06:28Z
Lists: pgsql-docs
David G. Johnston wrote: > On Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 7:51 AM PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org> > wrote: > >> The following documentation comment has been logged on the website: >> >> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/ddl-constraints.html >> Description: >> >> >> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-constraints.html#DDL-CONSTRAINTS-FK >> >> > Given that users has: > >> PRIMARY KEY (tenant_id, user_id) >> >> > This: > > >> FOREIGN KEY (tenant_id, author_id) REFERENCES users ON DELETE SET NULL >> (author_id) >> >> > And this: > > >> FOREIGN KEY (tenant_id, author_id) REFERENCES users (tenant_id, >> user_id) >> ON DELETE SET NULL (author_id) >> > > Produce an identical outcome. > > The absence of a column list on the former causes the system to look at the > primary key for the named table and use its column list - which is > (tenant_id, user_id), same as the later explicit version. > > David J. > Thanks for explanation. I think "columns mapping" (just how I call it in this example) makes this example slightly non-intuitive, and reflects a less-common use case. Would it help to change `author_id` to `user_id` as a more straightforward case? Yushu Chen