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mysqlforeign-keysunique

MySQL - Unique foreign key

I have to make one of the foreign keys unique. The problem is, I am getting the following message from the phpMyAdmin:

The following indexes appear to be equal and one of them should be removed: consignmentnumber_id_UNIQUE, fk_consignments_consignmentnumbers2

So my question is this: should I be bothered? Is it really important not to have such indexes?

Solution

  • Every column with an key (primary, foreign) needs an index. Same with column being unique. You probably created two indexes (one when creating FK and one on Unique constraint). If this is the case just drop one of those indexes.

    It is overhead for the DB to maintain two equivalent indexes.