Foreign key restrictions -> yes or no?

Posted by This is it on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by This is it
Published on 2011-02-08T13:31:13Z Indexed on 2011/02/08 15:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 195

Filed under:

sql

|

mysql

|

sql-server

|

database

|

oracle10g

I would like to hear some”real life experience” suggestions if foreign key restrictions are good or bad thing to enforce in DB.
I would kindly ask students/beginners to refrain from jumping and answering quickly and without thinking.
At the beginning of my career I thought that stupidest thing you can do is disregard the referential integrity. Today, after "few" projects I'm thinking different. Quite different.

What do you think: Should we enforce foreign key restrictions or not?
*Please explain your answer.

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about sql

SQL SERVER – Concat Strings in SQL Server using T-SQL – SQL in Sixty Seconds #035 – Video

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Concatenating string is one of the most common tasks in SQL Server and every developer has to come across it. We have to concat the string when we have to see the display full name of the person by first name and last name. In this video we will see various methods to concatenate the strings. SQL… >>> More
SQL SERVER – Concat Function in SQL Server – SQL Concatenation

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Earlier this week, I was delivering Advanced BI training on the subject of “SQL Server 2008 R2″. I had great time delivering the session. During the session, we talked about SQL Server 2010 Denali. Suddenly one of the attendees suggested his displeasure for the product. He said, even though… >>> More
Error with SQL Server Setup 2012 on Windows 2012

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to install SQL Server on Windows 2012. I was able to finally get the wizard up and running after making some changes on the server, but now it fails no matter what I do with the following error: TITLE: SQL Server Setup failure. SQL Server Setup has encountered the following error: … >>> More
How can I detect which version of SQL (eg SQL 2008 or SQL Azure)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to detect which version of SQL I am dealing with to perorm various tasks, I need specifically detect if I am on SQL 2008 or SQL Azure. How can I do this with detection code written in SQL? >>> More
Nested SQL Select statement fails on SQL Server 2000, ok on SQL Server 2005

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Here is the query: INSERT INTO @TempTable SELECT UserID, Name, Address1 = (SELECT TOP 1 [Address] FROM (SELECT TOP 1 [Address] FROM [UserAddress] ua INNER JOIN UserAddressOrder uo ON ua.UserID = uo.UserID WHERE ua.UserID = u.UserID ORDER BY uo.AddressOrder ASC) q ORDER BY AddressOrder… >>> More

Related posts about mysql

How to remove MySQL completely with config and library files on ubuntu 12.04 gnome 3.0

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I tried everything till now: sudo apt-get remove mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common sudo apt-get purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common sudo apt-get autoremove and even more commands... But whenever I am trying to locate mysql. I get a no. of files related to mysql command: shell>>… >>> More
mysql: Cannot load from mysql.proc. The table is probably corrupted

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Mysql was started: /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/srv/mysql/myDB --log-error=/srv/mysql/logs/mysqld-myDB.log --pid-file=/srv/mysql/pids/mysqld-myDB.pid --user=mysql --socket=/srv/mysql/sockets/mysql-myDB.sock --port=3700 but when I'm trying to do something: ERROR 1548 (HY000) at line 1: Cannot… >>> More
Why is there a /etc/init.d/mysql file on this Slackware machine? How could it have gotten there?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
A client of my IT-consulting service owns a web-development shop. He's been having problems with a Slackware 12.0 server running MySQL 5.0.67. The machine was set up by the client's sysadmin, who left on bad terms. My client no longer employs a sysadmin. As far as I can tell, the only copy of MySQL… >>> More
mysql: Bind on unix socket: Permission denied

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Can't start mysql with: sudo /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/srv/mysql/myDB --log-error=/srv/mysql/logs/mysqld-myDB.log --pid-file=/srv/mysql/pids/mysqld-myDB.pid --user=mysql --socket=/srv/mysql/sockets/mysql-myDB.sock --port=3700 120222 13:40:48 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases… >>> More
MySQL – Learning MySQL Online in 6 Hours – MySQL Fundamentals in 320 Minutes

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
MySQL is one of the most popular database language and I have been recently working with it a lot. Data have no barrier and every database have their own place. I have been working with MySQL for quite a while and just like SQL Server, I often find lots of people asking me if I have a tutorial which… >>> More