Tame Your Unruly Data With Constraints

Robert Volk

Database constraints are typically unknown, ignored, or misunderstood, especially by beginners and developers. This session will introduce the concepts of primary key, unique, check, and foreign key constraints. We will demonstrate their correct usage and what can go wrong when they are not used. We will include proper data type selection, size, and column nullability as part of basic database design and architecture. We will also review SQL Server’s system views to help identify and document existing constraints and tables.

Attendees will learn how constraints can not only improve data quality and integrity, but also improve performance, reduce application code, and simplify or eliminate additional data quality programming. Maintenance and validation techniques will be shown, and how to apply them when interacting with data from other systems.

In the end, your data will become leaner, faster, and more reliable, and you can sit back and worry no more!