> Jim Starkey wrote:
>
> >On reflection, I don't like this feature for two reasons. First, I
> >consider it unnecessary. Constraints exist to protect data integrity,
> >not servce as a censor for application programs.

Except for business constraints, right :-)

These can/should (for a large part) be part of a database schema
as well, as this is the central way to control integrity of your data.
Now, "integrity" can mean several things - FKs being one of them.
"not null" is one, but "value in (1, 2, 3)" is one as well.

All perfect use of database constraints.

A constraint saying "read only columns A, C, D on table MYTAB"
could be a perfectly valid business constraint as well.


Mind you, I'm not talking implementation :-)

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com