Foreign Key to multiple tables

Question

I've got 3 relevant tables in my database.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Group
(
    ID int NOT NULL,
    Name varchar(50) NOT NULL
)  

CREATE TABLE dbo.User
(
    ID int NOT NULL,
    Name varchar(50) NOT NULL
)

CREATE TABLE dbo.Ticket
(
    ID int NOT NULL,
    Owner int NOT NULL,
    Subject varchar(50) NULL
)

Users belong to multiple groups. This is done via a many to many relationship, but irrelevant in this case. A ticket can be owned by either a group or a user, via the dbo.Ticket.Owner field.

What would be the MOST CORRECT way describe this relationship between a ticket and optionally a user or a group?

I'm thinking that I should add a flag in the ticket table that says what type owns it.

Answer 1

You have a few options, all varying in "correctness" and ease of use. As always, the right design depends on your needs.

• You could simply create two columns in Ticket, OwnedByUserId and OwnedByGroupId, and have nullable Foreign Keys to each table.

• You could create M:M reference tables enabling both ticket:user and ticket:group relationships. Perhaps in future you will want to allow a single ticket to be owned by multiple users or groups? This design does not enforce that a ticket must be owned by a single entity only.

• You could create a default group for every user and have tickets simply owned by either a true Group or a User's default Group.

• Or (my choice) model an entity that acts as a base for both Users and Groups, and have tickets owned by that entity.

Heres a rough example using your posted schema:

create table dbo.PartyType
(   
    PartyTypeId tinyint primary key,
    PartyTypeName varchar(10)
)

insert into dbo.PartyType
    values(1, 'User'), (2, 'Group');


create table dbo.Party
(
    PartyId int identity(1,1) primary key,
    PartyTypeId tinyint references dbo.PartyType(PartyTypeId),
    unique (PartyId, PartyTypeId)
)

CREATE TABLE dbo.[Group]
(
    ID int primary key,
    Name varchar(50) NOT NULL,
    PartyTypeId as cast(2 as tinyint) persisted,
    foreign key (ID, PartyTypeId) references Party(PartyId, PartyTypeID)
)  

CREATE TABLE dbo.[User]
(
    ID int primary key,
    Name varchar(50) NOT NULL,
    PartyTypeId as cast(1 as tinyint) persisted,
    foreign key (ID, PartyTypeId) references Party(PartyID, PartyTypeID)
)

CREATE TABLE dbo.Ticket
(
    ID int primary key,
    [Owner] int NOT NULL references dbo.Party(PartyId),
    [Subject] varchar(50) NULL
)