Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails

Question

table 1

+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field    | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| UserID   | int(11)     | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Password | varchar(20) | NO   |     |         |                |
| Username | varchar(25) | NO   |     |         |                |
| Email    | varchar(60) | NO   |     |         |                |
+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

table2

+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field            | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| UserID           | int(11)      | NO   | MUL |         |                |
| PostID           | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Title            | varchar(50)  | NO   |     |         |                |
| Summary          | varchar(500) | NO   |     |         |                |
+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

Error:

com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLIntegrityConstraintViolationException: 
Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails 
(`myapp/table2`, CONSTRAINT `table2_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`UserID`) 
REFERENCES `table1` (`UserID`)) 

What have I done wrong? I read http://www.w3schools.com/Sql/sql_foreignkey.asp and I don't see what's wrong.

Answer 1

You're getting this error because you're trying to add/update a row to table2 that does not have a valid value for the UserID field based on the values currently stored in table1. If you post some more code I can help you diagnose the specific cause.