Unique columns pair constraint in SQLite with conflict strategy - sqlite

Question

I need to create a unique constraint for two columns in a row with conflict strategy attached. Suppose we have a table:
CREATE TABLE `telephones`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL);
So it is clear that it is a separate table for one-to-many relationship between a user and his telephones. What I need is to create a unique index for user_id and telephone, so database shouldn't have duplicates.
AFAIK, here are two ways of creating such a constraint: either by creating an index as a separated SQL request or by creating a constraint inside CREATE TABLE statement. First way looks like this:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX `user_ids_and_telephones` ON `telephones`(`user_id`, `telephone`) ON CONFLICT IGNORE
And the second way looks like this:
CREATE TABLE `telephones`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL,
UNIQUE(`user_id`, `telephone`) ON CONFLICT IGNORE);
My question is: are these ways equivalent and will both work correctly for the goal described, or do they have some logical differences that will affect subsequent duplicates inserting logic?
I didn't find documentation quiet clear about that.

Answer 1

Both ways create an index and as such they act in the same way (see below). The documentation states this as :-
In most cases, UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints are implemented by
creating a unique index in the database. (The exceptions are INTEGER
PRIMARY KEY and PRIMARY KEYs on WITHOUT ROWID tables.) Hence, the
following schemas are logically equivalent:
CREATE TABLE t1(a, b UNIQUE);
CREATE TABLE t1(a, b PRIMARY KEY);
CREATE TABLE t1(a, b);
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX t1b ON t1(b);
SQL As Understood By SQLite - CREATE TABLE - SQL Data Constraints
However, I do not believe that you can code a conflict clause when defining an index independently. So
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX user_ids_and_telephones ON telephones(user_id, telephone) ON CONFLICT IGNORE is not valid.
As such, the conflict handling will differ.
For example consider the following :-
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `telephones1`;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `telephones1`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL);
DROP INDEX IF EXISTS user_ids_and_telephones;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX `user_ids_and_telephones` ON `telephones1`(`user_id`, `telephone`)
-- ON CONFLICT IGNORE commented out as is invalid
;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `telephones2`;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `telephones2`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL,
UNIQUE(`user_id`, `telephone`) ON CONFLICT IGNORE);
SELECT * FROM sqlite_master WHERE type = 'index' AND name LIKE '%telephones%';
INSERT INTO `telephones2` VALUES
(null,1,'phone1'),(null,2,'phone2'),(null,3,'phone1'),(null,1,'phone1');
INSERT INTO `telephones1` VALUES
(null,1,'phone1'),(null,2,'phone2'),(null,3,'phone1'),(null,1,'phone1');
The insert into telephones2 will not fail but only insert 3 of the 4 rows.
The
insert into telephones1 fails without inserting any rows.
as per :-
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `telephones1`
> OK
> Time: 0.389s
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `telephones1`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL)
> OK
> Time: 0.31s
DROP INDEX IF EXISTS user_ids_and_telephones
> OK
> Time: 0s
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX `user_ids_and_telephones` ON `telephones1`(`user_id`, `telephone`)
-- ON CONFLICT IGNORE
> OK
> Time: 0.366s
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `telephones2`
> OK
> Time: 0.383s
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `telephones2`(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
telephone STRING NOT NULL,
UNIQUE(`user_id`, `telephone`) ON CONFLICT IGNORE)
> OK
> Time: 0.358s
SELECT * FROM sqlite_master WHERE type = 'index' AND name LIKE '%telephones%'
> OK
> Time: 0s
INSERT INTO `telephones2` VALUES
(null,1,'phone1'),(null,2,'phone2'),(null,3,'phone1'),(null,1,'phone1')
> Affected rows: 3
> Time: 0.356s
INSERT INTO `telephones1` VALUES
(null,1,'phone1'),(null,2,'phone2'),(null,3,'phone1'),(null,1,'phone1')
> UNIQUE constraint failed: telephones1.user_id, telephones1.telephone
> Time: 0.004s
As can be seen from the output of the query of the slqite_master two indexes are in fact created :-
The one attached to telephones2 being an automatically generated index (i.e. it starts with sqlite_autoindex)