> Chris Campbell <chris(at)bignerdranch(dot)com> writes:
>> I heard an interesting feature request today: preventing the
>> execution of a DELETE or UPDATE query that does not have a WHERE clause.
>
> These syntaxes are required by the SQL spec. Furthermore, it's easy
> to imagine far-more-probable cases in which the system wouldn't detect
> that you'd made a mistake, eg
>
> DELETE FROM tab WHERE key > 1
>
> where you meant to type
>
> DELETE FROM tab WHERE key > 10000000
>
> I suggest counseling your client to learn how to use BEGIN/ROLLBACK.
> This proposal strikes me as falling squarely within the rule about
> "design a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want
> to use it".
>
Just a theory, couldn't a trigger be set up that would case the query to
tank if it touches too many rows?