RE: Primary & Foreign key constraints

Guys!

This isn't stone age. Talk about today's world.

                -----Original Message-----

                On Tue, 23 May 2000 10:31:08 -0800, Colin Shaw wrote:

>Whilst I agree that it's a disadvantage not having the RI
enforcement at the

>database, I have worked on quite a few systems that did
not. I wouldn't go

>so far as to call the designer "an idiot", because most, if
not all, were

>legacy systems that had been designed before many databases
even *had* RI

>syntax. They all "enforce" RI by "do-it-yourself" FK/PK
lookups (using

>indices, of course.)

		Yes, I've worked on several such systems. One was more or
		less a simple port of indexed files to Oracle tables. It was
		an old legacy app and not worth the time to rewrite. 

		Also, years ago, I knew people who did the RI at the app
		level because placing it in the database caused performance
		problems. Relational databases were not always as robust and
		powerful as they are now.