INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint - SQL Server

Question

I am getting the following error. Could you please help me?

Msg 547, Level 16, State 0, Line 1
The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "FK_Sup_Item_Sup_Item_Cat". The conflict occurred in database "dev_bo", table "dbo.Sup_Item_Cat". The statement has been terminated.

Code:

insert into sup_item (supplier_id, sup_item_id, name, sup_item_cat_id, 
                      status_code, last_modified_user_id, last_modified_timestamp, client_id)   
values (10162425, 10, 'jaiso', '123123',
        'a', '12', '2010-12-12', '1062425')

The last column client_id is causing the error. I tried to put the value which already exists in the dbo.Sup_Item_Cat into the column, corresponding to the sup_item.. but no joy :-(

Answer 1

In your table dbo.Sup_Item_Cat, it has a foreign key reference to another table. The way a FK works is it cannot have a value in that column that is not also in the primary key column of the referenced table.

If you have SQL Server Management Studio, open it up and sp_help 'dbo.Sup_Item_Cat'. See which column that FK is on, and which column of which table it references. You're inserting some bad data.

Let me know if you need anything explained better!