22 Chapter 1: Creating

silently and automatically repaired. When a constraint succeeds, the operation is

allowed to proceed.
Column constraints are the programmers friend. They provide an early
warning about mistakes involving data. The more constraints there are in a data-
base, the more likely it is that programming errors will be found very early in
the development process, and thats a good thing.
Constraints are also the database administrators friend because they make
it very hard to store invalid data. You can use a column constraint to store a
business-related validation rule in a single central location (the database) and
have it apply to all applications and ad hoc updates. No program or power user
can escape or bypass a column constraint.
<column_constraint> ::= NOT NULL
| [ <constraint_prefix> ]
CHECK "(" <boolean_expression> ")"
| [ <constraint_prefix> ]
PRIMARY KEY [ <clustering> ]
| [ <constraint_prefix> ]
REFERENCES
[ <owner_name> "." ]
<table_name>
[ "(" <column_name> ")" ]
[ <on_action> ]
[ <clustering> ]
| [ <constraint_prefix> ]
UNIQUE [ <clustering> ]
<constraint_prefix> ::= CONSTRAINT [ <constraint_name> ]
<constraint_name> ::= <identifier>
<boolean_expression> ::= see <boolean_expression> in Chapter 3, "Selecting"
<clustering> ::= CLUSTERED
| NONCLUSTERED
<table_name> ::= <identifier>
<on_action> ::= ON UPDATE <action>
| ON UPDATE <action> ON DELETE <action>
| ON DELETE <action>
| ON DELETE <action> ON UPDATE <action>
<action> ::= CASCADE | SET NULL | SET DEFAULT | RESTRICT

1.10.1 NOT NULL Constraint

The NOT NULL constraint prevents NULL values from being stored in the col-
umn. This constraint is recommended for all columns whenever possible, to
simplify expressions, queries, and other SQL statements. For a discussion of
NULL and its relationship to the special three-value logic system using TRUE,
FALSE, and UNKNOWN values, see Section 3.12, Boolean Expressions and
the WHERE Clause.

1.10.2 Column CHECK Constraint

The column CHECK constraint allows a search condition to be tested every
time a column is changed. A search condition can range from a simple compari-
son like CHECK ( salary >= 0 ) to much more complex expressions involving
all of the features available in a query WHERE clause. Search conditions are
described in more detail in Chapter 3, Selecting.