Dont know how to link the relationships in these tables?

Question

I have one table called holiday_details and another called date_holiday. I am trying to link the two together.
The column i am trying to link in the holdiay_details is holiday_code. This is the primary key in this table and a foreign key i want to link to date_holiday.
In the date_holiday there is a holiday_code column and a date_departed column.
For this table the same holiday can have many departure dates. E.g H1 (holiday_code) - 10-17-2010(date_departed). H1 - 11-20-2010. However the same holiday cant leave on the same date more than once. e.g H1 - 10-17-2010 = unique constraint violated.
Therefore i made a unique composite key of the two columns (holiday_code and date_departed) together.
When i try to reference holiday_code from my holiday_details column to my holiday_code on the date_holiday it wont work. Cant i reference it because it is a composite unique key? I dont know any other way to reference it. I cant make either the primary key, they have to be unique together.
Does anyone have a solution? Im completely stuck and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Jay,
I can't say to have a solution but will make some recommendations.
<li>Google Oracle Database Naming Conventions and find a better method of naming your tables, keys and attributes. Doing so will make your data structures and data models easier to understand.</li>
<li>Key both of your tables by Sequence</li>
<li>Document further what each of these tables represents and determine what the remaining attributes would be for each table.</li>
<li>Data model using SQL Developer or any other data modeling tool, an ERD in my opinion is much easier to read and later is a road map while developing and enhancing your application</li>
From what I could understand, I modeled the following:
holiday_tbl with a PK of holiday_seq (sequence)
holiday_departure_tbl with a PK of holiday_departure_seq and a FK key of holiday_seq
This would establish a one to many relationship, holiday_tbl to holiday_departure_tbl or holidays have one to many departures.
Your business rule of, a holiday can only one depart once on a given date, could be enforced either on the database or within your application.
Hope this helps you out.
Jeff