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
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Filed under:

sql

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mysql

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sql-server

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database

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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.

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