MySQL foreign key constraints, cascade delete

Question

I want to use foreign keys to keep the integrity and avoid orphans (I already use innoDB).

How do I make a SQL statment that DELETE ON CASCADE?

If I delete a

Answer 1

I got confused by the answer to this question, so I created a test case in MySQL, hope this helps

-- Schema
CREATE TABLE T1 (
    `ID` int not null auto_increment,
    `Label` varchar(50),
    primary key (`ID`)
);

CREATE TABLE T2 (
    `ID` int not null auto_increment,
    `Label` varchar(50),
    primary key (`ID`)
);

CREATE TABLE TT (
    `IDT1` int not null,
    `IDT2` int not null,
    primary key (`IDT1`,`IDT2`)
);

ALTER TABLE `TT`
    ADD CONSTRAINT `fk_tt_t1` FOREIGN KEY (`IDT1`) REFERENCES `T1`(`ID`) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    ADD CONSTRAINT `fk_tt_t2` FOREIGN KEY (`IDT2`) REFERENCES `T2`(`ID`) ON DELETE CASCADE;

-- Data
INSERT INTO `T1` (`Label`) VALUES ('T1V1'),('T1V2'),('T1V3'),('T1V4');
INSERT INTO `T2` (`Label`) VALUES ('T2V1'),('T2V2'),('T2V3'),('T2V4');
INSERT INTO `TT` (`IDT1`,`IDT2`) VALUES
(1,1),(1,2),(1,3),(1,4),
(2,1),(2,2),(2,3),(2,4),
(3,1),(3,2),(3,3),(3,4),
(4,1),(4,2),(4,3),(4,4);

-- Delete
DELETE FROM `T2` WHERE `ID`=4; -- Delete one field, all the associated fields on tt, will be deleted, no change in T1
TRUNCATE `T2`; -- Can't truncate a table with a referenced field
DELETE FROM `T2`; -- This will do the job, delete all fields from T2, and all associations from TT, no change in T1