Re: inline out-of-line

Vu Pham wrote:
> Sorry for another stupid question. Searched but not yet found the answer.
>
> Is there any advantage/disadvatange between inline and out-of-line
> declaration of constraints ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Vu

As I've made obvious in numerous postings I dislike in-line constraint declarations. To use them to fully define a constraint with name, condition, index, storage, etc. on a decent sized table makes the CREATE TABLE large and difficult to maintain.

The second reason I don't like them is that when moving code to production DBAs should have the ability to alter tablespace and storage parameters. Making them do so inside of a large block of DDL makes it easier for mistakes to be made.

Finally consider the possibility that a CREATE TABLE and many of its in-line constraints may be valid but one may have a problem. Do you want the entire CREATE to fail including all views and code dependent upon the table or just the single, easy to fix, constraint creation?

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
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