How do I specify unique constraint for multiple columns in MySQL?

Niyaz_184 0
Viewed 626191

I have a table:

table votes (
    id,
    user,
    email,
    address,
    primary key(id),
);

Now I want to make the columns user, email, address unique (together).

How do I do this in MySql?

Of course the example is just... an example. So please don't worry about the semantics.

database-table unique-constraint composite-key mysql
14 Answers

To add a unique constraint, you need to use two components:

ALTER TABLE - to change the table schema and,

ADD UNIQUE - to add the unique constraint.

You then can define your new unique key with the format 'name'('column1', 'column2'...)

So for your particular issue, you could use this command:

ALTER TABLE `votes` ADD UNIQUE `unique_index`(`user`, `email`, `address`);
user_670090

Have you tried this ? 

UNIQUE KEY `thekey` (`user`,`email`,`address`)
Erick_576550

I do it like this:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name ON TableName (Column1, Column2, Column3);

My convention for a unique index_name is TableName_Column1_Column2_Column3_uindex.

user_42452940

If You are creating table in mysql then use following :

create table package_template_mapping (
mapping_id  int(10) not null auto_increment  ,
template_id int(10) NOT NULL ,
package_id  int(10) NOT NULL ,
remark      varchar(100),
primary key (mapping_id) ,
UNIQUE KEY template_fun_id (template_id , package_id)
);
user_70800330
user_22337640

First get rid of existing duplicates

delete a from votes as a, votes as b where a.id < b.id 
and a.user <=> b.user and a.email <=> b.email 
and a.address <=> b.address;

Then add the unique constraint

ALTER TABLE votes ADD UNIQUE unique_index(user, email, address);

Verify the constraint with

SHOW CREATE TABLE votes;

Note that user, email, address will be considered unique if any of them has null value in it.

user_3724960

For PostgreSQL... It didn't work for me with index; it gave me an error, so I did this:

alter table table_name
add unique(column_name_1,column_name_2);

PostgreSQL gave unique index its own name. I guess you can change the name of index in the options for the table, if it is needed to be changed...

user_74327340
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