Re: The fable of DEMETRIUS, CONSTRAINTICUS, and AUTOMATICUS

From: Marshall Spight <mspight_at_dnai.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 15:42:44 GMT
Message-ID: <UBadd.277067$D%.119252@attbi_s51>

"Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote in message news:yeGdnZXYRLK1jOjcRVn-tQ_at_comcast.com...
>
> A lot of the current discussion seems to be turning on the issue of
> constraints, and basically
> whether you express them as DDL, or as metadata, or as code that enforces
> them.
>
> But it's my impression that in the "ultimate normal form", all of the
> constraints follow from the definitions of the keys and of the domains.

This was roughly my thought as well. The *best* way to enforce a constraint is structurally, so that in the language of the application's schema, it is *not possible to express* corrupt data.

Marshall Received on Tue Oct 19 2004 - 10:42:44 CDT