MySQL:错误1215(HY000):无法添加外键约束

Question

mysql> select * from department
    -> ;
+------------+----------+-----------+
| dept_name  | building | budget    |
+------------+----------+-----------+
| Biology    | Watson   |  90000.00 |
| Comp. Sci. | Taylor   | 100000.00 |
| Elec. Eng. | Taylor   |  85000.00 |
| Finance    | Painter  | 120000.00 |
| History    | Painter  |  50000.00 |
| Music      | Packard  |  80000.00 |
| Physics    | Watson   |  70000.00 |
+------------+----------+-----------+

mysql> show columns from department
    -> ;
+-----------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| dept_name | varchar(20)   | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| building  | varchar(15)   | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| budget    | decimal(12,2) | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-----------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

mysql> create table course
    -> (course_id varchar(7),
    -> title varchar (50),
    -> dept_name varchar(20),
    -> credits numeric(2,0),
    -> primary key(course_id),
    -> foreign key (dept_name) references department);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

------------------------
LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR
------------------------
2013-09-21 16:02:20 132cbe000 Error in foreign key constraint of table university/course:
foreign key (dept_name) references department):
Syntax error close to:
)
mysql> set foreign_key_checks=0
    -> ;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> create table course
    -> (course_id varchar(7),
    -> title varchar(50),
    -> dept_name varchar(20),
    -> credits numeric(2,0),
    -> primary key(course_id),
    -> foreign key (dept_name) references department);
ERROR 1215 (HY000): Cannot add foreign key constraint

Answer 1

当您得到这个模糊的错误消息时，您可以通过运行

SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS;

最常见的原因是，在创建外键时，引用字段和外键字段都需要匹配：

• 引擎应相同，例如，InnoDB
• 数据类型应相同且长度相同。
  例如，无符号的VARCHAR(20)或INT(10)
• 校对应相同。例如utf8
• unique-foreign key应该引用引用表中唯一（通常是私有）的字段。