| Goal | This query identifies leaf base tables (tables with no inheriting children) that completely lack both PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints. It is a standard database design best practice to define at least one candidate key and designate it as the primary key for every table. Parent tables are specifically excluded from this check because, in PostgreSQL inheritance, primary keys do not enforce global uniqueness across the entire table hierarchy. Instead, parent tables often serve as abstract templates, meaning primary keys are properly defined only on their respective child tables. |
|---|---|
| Type | Problem detection Each row in the result could represent a flaw in the design |
| Reliability | High Few or no false-positive results |
| License | MIT (opens in new tab) |
| Data Source | INFORMATION_SCHEMA+system catalog |
| SQL Query |
|
Fixing Suggestion
Collections
This query belongs to the following collections:
Find problems about integrity constraints
A selection of queries that return information about the state of integrity constraints in the datadabase. Contains all the types of queries - problem detection, software measure, and general overview
Find problems automatically
Queries, that results point to problems in the database. Each query in the collection produces an initial assessment. However, a human reviewer has the final say as to whether there is a problem or not .
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Find problems about integrity constraints | A selection of queries that return information about the state of integrity constraints in the datadabase. Contains all the types of queries - problem detection, software measure, and general overview |
| Find problems automatically | Queries, that results point to problems in the database. Each query in the collection produces an initial assessment. However, a human reviewer has the final say as to whether there is a problem or not . |
Categories
This query is classified under the following categories:
Uniqueness
Queries of this category provide information about uniqueness constraints (PRIMARY KEY, UNIQUE, EXCLUDE) as well as unique indexes.
Validity and completeness
Queries of this category provide information about whether database design represents the world (domain) correctly (validity) and whether database design captures all the information about the world (domain) that is correct and relevant (completeness).
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Uniqueness | Queries of this category provide information about uniqueness constraints (PRIMARY KEY, UNIQUE, EXCLUDE) as well as unique indexes. |
| Validity and completeness | Queries of this category provide information about whether database design represents the world (domain) correctly (validity) and whether database design captures all the information about the world (domain) that is correct and relevant (completeness). |
Further reading and related materials:
| Reference |
|---|
| Rule 4 in: Delplanque, J., Etien, A., Auverlot, O., Mens, T., Anquetil, N., Ducasse, S.: CodeCritics applied to database schema: Challenges and first results. In: 2017 IEEE 24th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER), pp. 432-436. IEEE, (2017). |