Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Chris Campbell <chris@bignerdranch.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