Adding Table Constraints

ALTER TABLE ENROLMENT ADD CONSTRAINT NameNotNull

CHECK (Name IS NOT NULL) ;

ALTER TABLE ENROLMENT ADD CONSTRAINT PK_StudentId_CourseId

PRIMARY KEY (StudentId, CourseId) ;

1. ALTER TABLE ENROLMENT specifies that the definition of base table ENROLMENT is to be modified in some way, such as adding or dropping a column, adding or dropping a constraint (among other things).
2. ADD CONSTRAINT NameNotNull specifies that in fact a constraint is being added to the definition of ENROLMENT, and the name by which that constraint can subsequently be referred to is NameNotNull. For example, the name would be needed if the constraint were later to be dropped, or perhaps it could appear in an error message when an attempted update is rejected for violating that constraint. Similar comments apply to ADD CONSTRAINT PK_StudentId_CourseId.
3. CHECK (Name IS NOT NULL) specifies a truth-valued expression, Name IS NOT NULL, that must be satisfied by each row of every table that is assigned to ENROLMENT. If the current value of ENROLMENT fails to satisfy this constraint, then the ALTER TABLE statement fails.
4. PRIMARY KEY ( StudentId, CourseId ) used for constraint. Again, the ALTER TABLE statement fails if the constraint is not satisfied by the current value of ENROLMENT.