Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Chris Campbell <chris(at)bignerdranch(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?
Date: 2006-06-16 02:35:19
Message-ID: 12104.1150425319@sss.pgh.pa.us
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-hackers

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".

regards, tom lane

In response to

Responses

Browse pgsql-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Toru SHIMOGAKI 2006-06-16 02:45:37 Re: Parallel index build during COPY
Previous Message Jaime Casanova 2006-06-16 02:06:05 Re: problems with the anoncvs?