Problems with MySQL bidirectional relationship and mirrored foreign keys

Question

i have to create two tables with a bidirectional relationship, as in the figure given below. But it always gives an error. I am using the following query for creating the tables.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `rpt_operation` (
  `op_id` int(45) NOT NULL,
  `component` int(45) NOT NULL,
  `ideal_time` time NOT NULL,
  `handling_time` time NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`op_id`),

  INDEX (component),
  FOREIGN KEY (component)
  REFERENCES rpt_component(comp_id)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;



CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `rpt_component` (
  `comp_id` int(45) NOT NULL,
  `lot_code` int(60) NOT NULL,
  `lot_color` varchar(60) NOT NULL,
  `drawing_num` int(60) NOT NULL,
  `revision_num` int(60) NOT NULL,
  `operation` int(45) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`comp_id`),

  INDEX (operation),
  FOREIGN KEY (operation)
  REFERENCES rpt_operation(op_id)

) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

The error appear in the line component int(45) NOT NULL of rpt_operation table. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Your table structure is impossible. You can't insert any records into rpt_operation because there are no records in rpt_component for the component foreign key, and you can't insert any records into rpt_component because there are no records in rpt_operation for the operation foreign key.

If you make one or both of those fields nullable, then the table structure is still recursive, so you have to add one of the foreign keys manually, for example:

ALTER TABLE rpt_operation
  ADD CONSTRAINT
  FOREIGN KEY (component)
  REFERENCES rpt_component(comp_id);

Answer 2

I would suggest you to use a linking-table to resolve this problem. This is not a viable solution and requires workarounds.