Finally figured how to implement foreign key relationships in MySQL, my question is should I set the foreign key fields in the child table to auto-increment, or is this already dealt with because they are A_I is set in the parent table?

For instance:
UserTbl
---------
userID [pk]
firstname
lastname
departmentID [fk]

---------
DepartmentTbl
----------
departmentID [pk]
departmentTitle

From the example above, the departmentID in the UserTbl be set to auto-increment or is this dealt with through the FK relationship?

neither

first of all, you shouldn't make it an auto_increment, it'll get out of step immediately

but it isn't "taken care of" by the parent table, either

you actually have to specify the parent primary key value as a value to be inserted when you insert a child row

Thank you for your quick response again r937.

Is this done by auto cascade on update?

no, you have to do it with application code

Oh I see now - should have noticed that beforehand really.

Thanks again.