Different types of relationships in SQL
1) One to One → each record in the first table (parent
table) is associated with exactly one record in the
second table (child table), and vice versa.
person_id | name | age
--------------------------
1 | Alice | 25
2 | Bob | 30
passport_id | passport_number | expiry_date
-------------------------------------------
101 | AB123456 | 2025-12-31
102 | CD789012 | 2024-08-15
person_id | passport_id
-------------------------
1 | 101
2 | 102
This represents a one-to-one relationship between
people and passports, where each person has exactly
one passport, and each passport is associated with
exactly one person.
2) One to Many → each record in the first table (parent
table) is associated with one or more records in the
second table (child table), and vice versa.
customer_id | name | email
----------------------------------
1 | Alice | alice@[Link]
2 | Bob | bob@[Link]
order_id | customer_id | order_date
-------------------------------------
101 | 1 | 2024-04-15
102 | 1 | 2024-04-16
103 | 2 | 2024-04-16
With the help of one customer id the user can order
multiple products.
3) Many to Many → each record in the parent table can
be associated with multiple records in the child table.
student_id | name | age
----------------------------
1 | Alice | 20
2 | Bob | 22
3 | Charlie| 21
course_id | course_name | instructor
-------------------------------------
101 | Math | Dr. Smith
102 | Science | Prof. Johnson
103 | English | Prof. Davis
student_id | course_id
------------------------
1 | 101
1 | 103
2 | 102
3 | 101
3 | 103
This represents a many-to-many relationship between
students and courses, where each student can be
enrolled in multiple courses, and each course can
have multiple students.
4)Many to One
It is a reverse process of One to Many
department_id | name | location
--------------------------------------
1 | IT | New York
2 | Marketing | London
employee_id | name | position
--------------------------------
101 | Alice | Developer
102 | Bob | Manager
103 | Charlie | Designer
employee_id | department_id
----------------------------
101 |1
102 |2
103 |1
This represents a many-to-one relationship between
employees and departments, where multiple
employees can belong to the same department.
Or we can consider multiple orders done by one
person.
Students to teachers—> one to many(One student can
have multiple teachers.)
Students to subjects → Many to many(One student can
learn multiple [Link] subject can be learned by
multiple students.)
Teachers to Students → one to many(One teacher can
have multiple students.)
Teachers to Subjects —> many to many (One teacher can
teach multiple subjects. Each subject can be taught by
multiple teachers.)
Subjects to students →Many to Many(One subject can
have multiple [Link] student can study multiple
subjects.)
Subjects to teachers —> One to many (One subject can be
taught by multiple teachers.)
