The Data Warrior

RI (Referential Integrity) Constraints: 3 Reasons to Include Them in Your Data Warehouse

Over the years, I have had numerous conversations about the value of having referential integrity (RI) constraints, such as primary and foreign keys, in a relational data warehouse or data mart.

Many DBAs object that RI constraints slow the load process. This is a valid point if you are talking about enforced constraints that are checked in real-time during the load. But this is not an issue if you define the constraints as disabled.

Which then leads to this common question:

Is there any reason to maintain a permanently disabled FK in the data model?  If it is not going to be enabled, then from my perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to define the FK.  Instead, the relationship can be described in the comment of the child column.

So, why would I want RI constraints in my data warehouse?

Here are 3 reasons to consider…RI (Referential Integrity) Constraints: 3 Reasons to Include Them in Your Data Warehouse

Model on!

Kent

The Data Warrior