Oracle Foreign Key Issues with Multi-Table Inserts and Blobs

Question

We have a single table that we want to break up into a tree of tables based upon a particular source column. I wanted to try using a multi-column insert, but it seems that if I insert a blob into a sub table, I wind up with a foreign key constraint violation.

I don't think this violates the rules about multi-table inserts but I could be wrong...

I am hoping that someone could point me to some more in-depth resources around what is actually going on here, so that I can feel confident that whatever solution will work as part of a liquibase changeset on Oracle databases 9i -> 11g.

Hopefully Simplified Scenario

CREATE TABLE source (
    pk NUMBER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    type VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL,
    content VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO source (pk,type,content) values (1,'two','n/a');
INSERT INTO source (pk,type,content) values (2,'one','Content');

CREATE TABLE dest (
    pk NUMBER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    type VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL
);


CREATE TABLE dest_one  (
    pkfk NUMBER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    data BLOB NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_ONE FOREIGN KEY (pkfk) REFERENCES dest (pk)
);


CREATE TABLE dest_two  (
    pkfk NUMBER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_TWO FOREIGN KEY (pkfk) REFERENCES dest (pk)
 );

Source contains our original data. dest will be our parent table, with children dest_one and dest_two (which will contain information on things of type 'one' or 'two' respectively). Things of type one have content, but things of type two do not.

The Failed Attempt

INSERT ALL
WHEN 1=1 THEN INTO dest (pk,type) VALUES (pk,type)
WHEN type='one' THEN INTO dest_one (pkfk,data) VALUES (pk,content)
WHEN type='two' THEN INTO dest_two (pkfk) VALUES (pk)
SELECT pk,type,utl_raw.cast_to_raw(content) as content from source where type in ('one','two');

As previously mentioned, I wound up with a foreign key constraint violation here. To further illustrate that the blob was the issue I tried two seperate similar queries (below) realizing the one without the blob insert worked, but with the blob insert failed.

INSERT ALL
WHEN 1=1 THEN INTO dest (pk,type) VALUES (pk,type)
WHEN type='two' THEN INTO dest_two (pkfk) VALUES (pk)
SELECT pk,type,utl_raw.cast_to_raw(content) as content from source where type = 'two';
/* Successful */

INSERT ALL
WHEN 1=1 THEN INTO dest (pk,type) VALUES (pk,type)
WHEN type='one' THEN INTO dest_one (pkfk,data) VALUES (pk,content)
SELECT pk,type,utl_raw.cast_to_raw(content) as content from source where type = 'one';
/* ORA-02291: integrity constraint violated, no parent key */

Solution 1 - Traditional Inserts

INSERT INTO dest (pk,type) SELECT pk,type from source where type in ('one','two');
INSERT INTO dest_two (pkfk) SELECT pk from source where type = 'two';
INSERT INTO dest_one (pkfk,data) SELECT pk,utl_raw.cast_to_raw(content) from source where type = 'one';

One option I am considering is going back to multiple seperate insert statements, but unlike how I have stated them here, I'm concerned that I'll have to make sure I write my sub-table inserts to only attempt to insert those rows present in parent dest table... I need to do more research on how Liquibase handles multiple sql statements in the same changeset.

Solution 2 - Temporarily disabling foreign key constraints

ALTER TABLE dest_one DISABLE CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_ONE;


INSERT ALL
WHEN 1=1 THEN INTO dest (pk,type) VALUES (pk,type)
WHEN type='one' THEN INTO dest_one (pkfk,data) VALUES (pk,content)
WHEN type='two' THEN INTO dest_two (pkfk) VALUES (pk)
SELECT pk,type,utl_raw.cast_to_raw(content) as content from source where type in ('one','two');

ALTER TABLE dest_one ENABLE CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_ONE;

This is the solution I'm leaning toward. While disabling the foreign key on my blob table seems to make it work in my test environment (10g - 10.2.0.1.0), I'm not sure if I should also be disabling the foreign key on the non-blob table as well (due to how 9i, 11g, or other versions of 10g may behave). Any resources here too would be appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Another solution would be to defer the constraint evaluation until COMMIT. I suspect (but am not sure) that the multi-table insert is inserting rows in an order other than the one you expect and want. Recreate your constraints as follows:

ALTER TABLE DEST_ONE DROP CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_ONE;

ALTER TABLE DEST_ONE
  ADD CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_ONE
    FOREIGN KEY (pkfk) REFERENCES dest (pk) 
    INITIALLY DEFERRED DEFERRABLE;

ALTER TABLE DEST_TWO DROP CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_TWO;

ALTER TABLE DEST_TWO
  ADD CONSTRAINT XFK1DEST_TWO
    FOREIGN KEY (pkfk) REFERENCES dest (pk)
    INITIALLY DEFERRED DEFERRABLE;

This re-creates the constraints so that they can be deferred, and are deferred from the time they're created. Then try your original INSERT again.

Share and enjoy.