Re: "DELETE FROM" protection

Great point Bruce,

I hadn't really thought of the semi-colon as a safety mechanism, but I guess
it is.

Jeremy

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org
[mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Bruce Momjian
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 1:27 PM
To: Yuji Shinozaki
Cc: Dave Ewart; pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [ADMIN] "DELETE FROM" protection


Yuji Shinozaki wrote:
>
> I've gotten myself into the habit of always writing out a
>
>     SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE ...;
>
> first, and then command-line editing it to
>
>     DELETE FROM ... WHERE ...;
>
> Putting it in a transaction (BEGIN, COMMIT or ROLLBACK) is probably the
> best practice.

I used to do this with Informix before a DELETE:

>     SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ... WHERE ...;

               ^^^^^^^^
and Informix had that "Are your sure" check in dbaccess too, but after I
did the COUNT(*), the prompt was just annoying.

Also, what interfaces allow you to just press ENTER to send a command?
With psql, you have to terminate it with a semicolon or nothing happens.

I think there is justification for an "Are you sure" only if a single
keystroke sends the command.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
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