Personal names are unique

Query goal:

Find all primary key and unique constraints of base tables that involve at least one column with personal names. Personal names are not unique and these cannot be (usually) used to guarantee uniqueness. Either one has declared a superkey instead of candidate key (i.e., the key contains a column that is not needed for uniqueness) or the key columns have been found incorrectly.

Notes about the query:

The query finds columns that contain personal names based on column names. Thus, there can be false positive and false negative results.

Query type:

Problem detection (Each row in the result could represent a flaw in the design)

Query reliability:

Medium (Medium number of false-positive results)

Query license:

MIT License

Fixing suggestion:

Declare a correct key that has a) uniqueness property - in case of each row its value is unique and b) irreducibility property - if one removes any column from the key, then it stops being unique.

Data source:

system catalog only

SQL query:

Click on query to copy it

with keys as (select 
o.conname, 
(select nspname from pg_namespace where oid=c.relnamespace) as key_schema,
c.relname as key_table, 
c.oid as key_table_oid,
o.conkey AS key_col,
case when o.contype='p' then 'PRIMARY KEY' ELSE 'UNIQUE' END as contype
from pg_constraint o inner join pg_class c on c.oid = o.conrelid
where o.contype in ('u', 'p') ),
keys_unnest as (select conname, key_schema, key_table, key_table_oid, key_col, key_col_num, ordin, contype
from keys, unnest(keys.key_col) with ordinality as k(key_col_num, ordin)),
keys_with_names as (select conname, key_schema, key_table, contype, string_agg(a_key.attname, ', ' order by ordin) as key_col
from keys_unnest k inner join pg_attribute a_key on k.key_col_num = a_key.attnum and k.key_table_oid = a_key.attrelid and a_key.attisdropped = false
group by conname, key_schema, key_table, contype)
select conname, key_schema, key_table, contype, key_col
from keys_with_names
where key_col~*'(first[_]*name|last[_]*name|given[_]*name|surname|person[_]*name|eesnimi|perenimi|perekonnanimi|isik.*nimi)'
order by key_schema, key_table, contype, key_col;

Collections where the query belongs to

Collection name	Collection description
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 .

Collection name

Collection description

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 where the query belongs to

Category name	Category description
Naming	Queries of this category provide information about the style of naming.
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).

Category name

Category description

Naming

Queries of this category provide information about the style of naming.

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).