"At GitHub we do not use foreign keys, ever, anywhere" (2016)

Re:"At GitHub we do not use foreign keys, ever, anywhere" (2... by supportengineer on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @09:34AM (#39103790)

Are we discussing constraints, or keys? The term “foreign key” without the word “constraint” totally changes the meaning.

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Re:"At GitHub we do not use foreign keys, ever, anywhere" (2... by supportengineer on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @09:37AM (#39103830)

From 4 years ago on the linked page:

“Some comments in the HN thread seem to confuse the logical referential integrity of the relational model, and the FOREIGN KEY constraint, which is a construct where the database enforces the referential integrity.

We do use tables with ‘id’s and tables referencing those ‘id’s. We do not use FOREIGN KEY constraints in our table definitions.”

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Re:"At GitHub we do not use foreign keys, ever, anywhere" (2... by philipsd6 on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @12:14PM (#39119820)

As a DBA I feel is this a bit of hand-waving… sure you can say your database model has logical referential integrity: “Parent 1:N Child” but without a referential constraint at the database level it’s just documentation.

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