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SQLite: How to Efficiently Handle Bulk Inserts with Foreign Key Constraints in Node.js?

👀 Views: 76 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-08-07
sqlite node.js foreign-keys JavaScript

I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I'm working on a Node.js application that uses SQLite to manage a relational database with several tables, including `users` and `orders`. I've set up foreign key constraints to link orders to users, but I'm running into issues when I try to perform bulk inserts into the `orders` table. Specifically, I get the following behavior when executing my insert operation: `SQLITE_CONSTRAINT: FOREIGN KEY constraint failed`. Here's the relevant part of my code where I prepare the bulk insert: ```javascript const sqlite3 = require('sqlite3').verbose(); const db = new sqlite3.Database('./mydb.sqlite'); const orders = [ { user_id: 1, product: 'Product A', quantity: 2 }, { user_id: 2, product: 'Product B', quantity: 1 }, { user_id: 3, product: 'Product C', quantity: 5 } ]; const insertOrders = (orders) => { const placeholders = orders.map(() => '(?, ?, ?)').join(', '); const sql = `INSERT INTO orders (user_id, product, quantity) VALUES ${placeholders}`; const values = orders.flatMap(order => [order.user_id, order.product, order.quantity]); db.run(sql, values, function(err) { if (err) { console.behavior('behavior inserting orders:', err.message); } else { console.log('Inserted ${this.changes} orders'); } }); }; insertOrders(orders); ``` I verified that all user_ids exist in the `users` table before running this, but I still encounter the constraint behavior. I've tried committing the inserts one by one in a loop, which works, but it's significantly slower than doing it in bulk. Additionally, I ensured that foreign keys are enabled with `PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;` at the beginning of my script. Is there a more efficient way to handle this bulk insert while respecting the foreign key constraints? Any insights or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated! This is for a CLI tool running on Windows 11. Thanks in advance! I'm working with Javascript in a Docker container on Ubuntu 22.04.