Foreign key constraint fails

[josephbupe]

Hi,

I am attempting to insert a foreign key into a table along with other information, but I am getting an error message:
 

Could not insert data into DataBase: Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`collectionsdb2`.`collections`, CONSTRAINT `collections_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`cat_id`) REFERENCES `categories` (`cat_id`))
 

 

The insert statement is as follows:

 

$sql = "INSERT INTO collections (cat_id, ctitle, csubject, creference, cmaterial, ctechnic, cwidth, cheight, cperiod, cmarkings, cdescription, csource, cartist, cfilename) VALUES ($cat_id, '$ctitle', '$csubject', '$creference', '$cmaterial', '$ctechnic', '$cwidth', '$cheight', '$cperiod', '$cmarkings', '$cdescription', '$csource', '$cartist', '" . $image['name'] . "')";
         $result = mysql_query($sql) or die ("Could not insert data into DataBase: " . mysql_error());

         exit;

 

And my two tables are as folows:

 

/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS collectionsdb2.collections;
CREATE TABLE `collections` (
  `c_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `cat_id` int(4) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ctitle` varchar(65) NOT NULL,
  `csubject` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `creference` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cyear` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  `cmaterial` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ctechnic` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cwidth` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cheight` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `clength` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cdiameter` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cperiod` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cmarkings` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cdescription` text,
  `csource` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cartist` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cfilename` varchar(65) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`c_id`),
  KEY `cat_id` (`cat_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `collections_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`cat_id`) REFERENCES `categories` (`cat_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;


/*!40014 SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS */;
 

and

 

/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS collectionsdb2.categories;
CREATE TABLE `categories` (
  `cat_id` int(4) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `category` varchar(25) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`cat_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=3 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;


/*!40014 SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS */;
 

I am using a select option box to insert foreign key (category) into the table form the categories table.

 

Please, how should I resolve this issue?

 

Thanx.

 

joseph

[josephbupe]

Resolved.

 

Thanx

[Barand]

Thanks for telling future visitors who search Google for this problem exactly what the solution was.

 

I'm going to guess you were trying to insert a cat_id value into collections that did not exist the category table.