mtassin (8/31/2010)

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Eric Russell 13013 (8/30/2010)

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Data integrity and constraint begins with choosing the appropriate data type. Obviously (to most of us) integers should be contained in an Integer data type and monetary values in a decimal with 2 decimal places. However, what I see happen all the time, even in major ISV applications, are date/time values contained in a varchar instead of a proper date data type. Not only does the reporting process take a performance hit with the data conversion, but inevitably there will be the occasional Feb 30. Even worse is when different users or applications use a different coding scheme and you have to sort out (in a where clause at runtime) the context of '3/11/09 6:22'.

Amen,

I've seen so many of these in older databases where I am... we work to squish them... but in many cases the business won't prioritize developer time to do so.

Even better is when you find tables that violate 1NF. And have something like a column called groups with values like 'ADMIN;USER;MANAGER' in it.

Come on... :'(