Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid |
Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.misc -> Re: Help with SQL constraint
On Feb 15, 2:37 am, "dean" <deanbrow..._at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> A table T has 2 fields, one (L) holding letters 'Y' and 'N', and one
> (X) holding numbers. Is there a (non trigger) constraint such that for
> L='N' (and only this letter) the numbers must be unique? Records
> where L='Y' do not have to be unique.
>
> (I need to join another table to the L='N' group of records, and the
> join must be key-preserved).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dean
The standard "conditional uniqieness" approach is to use a unique function based index using a DECODE or similar expression. Whether this will count as a key preservation device I don't know. If not the alternative would be to use the (undocumented, known to stop working on patch releases) hint 'BYPASS_UJVC". Received on Fri Feb 16 2007 - 04:50:44 CST