Re: creating CHECK constraints as NOT VALID

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> wrote:
> This patch allows you to initially declare a CHECK constraint as
> NOT VALID, similar to what we already allow for foreign keys. 
> That is, you create the constraint without scanning the table and
< after it is committed, it is enforced for new rows; later, all
> rows are checked by running ALTER TABLE VALIDATE CONSTRAINT, which
> doesn't need AccessExclusive thus allowing for better concurrency.
I think it's a valuable feature, not just in terms of timing and
concurrency, but in terms of someone starting with less-than-perfect
data who wants to prevent further degradation while cleaning up the
existing problems.  This feature is present in other databases I've
used.
-Kevin