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Schema: Unnamed constraints
Applies to ✅ Open Source Edition ✅ Express Edition ✅ Professional Edition ✅ Enterprise Edition
Most RDBMS are able to generate a constraint name if you're not specifying one explicitly:
CREATE TABLE actor ( actor_id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY ); CREATE TABLE film ( film_id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY ); CREATE TABLE film_actor ( actor_id BIGINT NOT NULL REFERENCES actor, film_id BIGINT NOT NULL REFERENCES film, PRIMARY KEY (actor_id, film_id) );
While this is correct, it makes evolving such a schema much harder. It is usually better to give an explicit name to each constraint, such that constraints can easily be dropped, deactivated temporarily, etc.:
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