Re: not using foreign keys?

On Jun 4, 12:53 pm, spacemar..._at_mailinator.com wrote:
> hello,
>
> i have a question -- is the practice of using FKs to maintain
> referential integrity an argued (for/against) practice? im now on an
> enterprise banking project, and the db designer does not use FKs, he
> feels it creates a "closed system", and prefers to have the coders
> manage constraints via procs.
>
> id never seen this before, but he said its an age-old argument (w/
> merits) and one he adheres to. is this so, or is it an unusual
> personal preference?
>
> i dont do much of the db work, but im just curious.
>
> thanks
> sm

The developers cannot do as well in managing 'constrained' data as the Oracle db engine can, period. The read consistency model prevents session-level code from 'seeing' uncommitted inserts/updates/deletes thus hindering the abilities of any developer to properly 'constrain' data.

As far as I'm concerned there are no 'merits' to letting developers attempt to 'manage' referential integrity as it only creates a mess too convoluted to undo at a later time when the folly of this 'decision' is realised.

David Fitzjarrell Received on Mon Jun 04 2007 - 12:59:51 CDT