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

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?
Date
Msg-id 12104.1150425319@sss.pgh.pa.us
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In response to Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?  (Chris Campbell <chris@bignerdranch.com>)
Responses Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?  (mark@mark.mielke.cc)
Re: Preventing DELETE and UPDATE without a WHERE clause?  ("Mark Woodward" <pgsql@mohawksoft.com>)
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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

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