Some people eat broken glass, too. ;-) Yes, some apps (like SAP) do implement their own constraints. But the underlying Oracle database is no longer "relational". In fact, with SAP, it is not even close... (As I recall, it is commonplace to see multiuple "record types" in the same Oracle table -- not even 1NF.) In effect, SAP has simply implemented thier own RDMBS that uses Oracle is a big, expensive disk drive. Sort of. (At least, this is how I understand it.) And, yes, if there are no indexes at the Oracle level in your SAP database, you are pretty much screwed when the "logical corruption fairy" comes to visit. ;-) (It's too long since I last looked at an SAP database -- don't recall how the data is indexed, but I would not be at all surprised to learn that the application "handles" that as well...) On 10/30/06, Jared Still <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 10/28/06, Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Nonetheless, I'll stick to my original statement; if you find an Oracle > database containing a large number of tables with no indexes, somebody > usually deserves a kick in the butt. (That said, in my wanderings, I have > actually encountered more than a few databases containing hundreds or tables > with nary a Primary Key constraint in sight. Of course, had it actually > been in my power, I probably would have kicked some butts -- I have yet > to encounter a situation where that lack of primary keys was actually > correct -- although I can imagine a few where it would be...) > Some apps do their own PK enforcement. Though a number of apps do this, the only one I have personally seen that does so succesfully is SAP. I still don't like it, but there's little I can do about it. -- Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist
-- Cheers, -- Mark Brinsmead Senior DBA, The Pythian Group http://www.pythian.com/blogs