Re: not using foreign keys?

spacemarine_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
>

Sounds like its time to get someone else on the project. Always let the Oracle engine enforce referential integrity through FK constraints. Doing so with a stored proc is not the way to go. How does the developer guarantee that the proc gets run when a row of data is INSERTed into the table? With a FK constraint, you don't have to worry about that.

A worse approach would be to let the application handle the referential integrity. But don't get me started on that....

HTH,
Brian

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Brian Peasland
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http://www.peasland.net

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