Re: Why is database integrity so impopular ?

DBMS_Plumber wrote:
> If you mandate that a column cannot contain a NULL, setting a DEFAULT
> means that when a programmer legitimately doesn't have a value for the
> column they aren't obliged to put in there the first thing that
> springs to mind.

I would have thought the effect was the opposite: If programmers (or anyone else, of course---I consider myself a programmer:) aren't obliged to specify a value (and thus aren't required to understand what the column is for), they will happily go with a default that may very well be inappropriate/incorrect. But without empirical evidence, either hypothesis is just speculation.

> I'm sure there would be cases where you could say NOT NULL but not
> provide a DEFAULT. The point to me was that this shop is serious about
> their integrity and this seriousness is manifested in their
> engineering policies and procedures.

Point taken, of course.

-- 
Jon