SQLBits 2018

Tame Your Unruly Data...With Constraints!

Is your data badly behaved and embarrassing you? Are you tired of cleaning up its messes? Constraints can help you straighten out your wayward data and put it on the right path before it gets into too much trouble.
Never given time or care, never forming good relationships, becoming bloated, corrupt and rife with indistinguishable copies, and all so horrifyingly pervasive in society. But enough about the Kardashians, what about YOUR DATA? If you want to straighten it out and prevent it from going too far in the first place, this session is for you. We will cover constraint basics (not null, check, primary key/unique, foreign keys), provide standard use cases, and address misconceptions about constraint use and performance. We will also look at triggers and application logic and why these are NOT substitutes for (but can effectively complement) good constraint usage. Attendees will enjoy learning how to keep THEIR data off the tabloid page!