Change constraint on column based on value of another

Question

Is it possible to change a constraint on a column in postgres based on the value of another column? E.g. (pseudocode):

CREATE TABLE transactions(
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    type TXN_TYPE NOT NULL,
    amount BIGINT,
    . . . .,
    refunded boolean DEFAULT FALSE,
    refund_id DEFAULT NULL if (CONSTRAINT link_refund CHECK (refunded=TRUE))=TRUE REFERENCES transactions(id)
);

Answer 1

A foreign key can not be "conditional". The only "exception" to that rule are null values which can't reference another table by definition.

If I understand your question correctly, you are trying to implement a constraint that says "if refunded is true then refund_id must reference an existing transaction".

I don't think you need the refunded column at all. Because the flag refunded can be derived from the value of the refund_id using the expression: refund_id is not null.

If you do want a column like that, just create a view with that expression.

If you do insist on having the redundant refunded flag, you could setup a check constraint like this:

CREATE TABLE transactions(
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    type TXN_TYPE NOT NULL,
    amount BIGINT,
    . . . .,
    refunded boolean DEFAULT FALSE,
    refund_id integer null REFERENCES transactions,
    constraint check_refund 
       check ( (refunded and refund_id is not null or
               (not refunded and refund_id is null) ) 
);