Re: PL/SQL best practices

Alex,

I don't know of any "best" practice, and in this case, I would let the following factors influence the decision: -data quality; do you expect a lot of the data, casting exceptions? -if yes, it might be better to spend some time investigating why this is so -if there is a constraint implemented, and you violate it big time, what's the point in having the constraint?
-job needed: is it batch or transaction oriented. -speed/performance: if you need to load the data quickly, consider removing the foreign key constraint, loading the data, and then clean up afterwards/restoring the constraint.

I'm sure there are numerous other factors to consider. In my opinion, there is no 100% right way to do stuff like this -it tends to depend on what you want to obtain ;).

cheers,
Jørgen

"Alex" <alexk84_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:57d3e820.0208050627.7c79505a_at_posting.google.com...
> When inserting a record into a table A which has a foreign key to
> table B, which of the following would be considerred best practice:
>
> 1. Insert the record and catch the exception that occurs if the
> reference data does not exist in table B.
>
> 2. Lookup the data in table B to ensure that it exists and then
> proceed.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alex
Received on Mon Aug 05 2002 - 20:34:45 CEST