Constraints with several father tables

Hi,

I have 4 tables: "T_father1",...,"T_father4". In relation to these father-tables I have a child-table: "T_Child" (with only 1 foreignkey-field: FsID) alread filled with some records.

That means each record of "T_Child" has in its field "FsID" a primary key of one of the 4 father tables.

If I want to create the 4 foreign-key CONSTRAINTS:

    "T_Child.FsID <-> T_FatherX.ID" (X=1..4) I get an Oracle-error (Ora-02298): "cannot validate".

My question is:
How can I tell Oracle (how do I have to create the Constraint), that this foreignkey-field "T_Child.FsID" is not the foreign-key to ONE father-table but to FOUR father tables ? Or is this "bad database design" to have one foreignkey-field for 4 father tables ?

Thanks in advance for any help, suggestionst or comments !! Best regards
 Ralf Miko Received on Thu Jul 24 2003 - 10:31:27 CEST