Implementation of SQL Assertions in Oracle Database

inLab FIB of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has collaborated with Oracle on the implementation of SQL Assertions (Structured Query Language Assertions), a feature that enables the automated validation of integrity constraints in database management systems. These constraints are essential for ensuring data quality and consistency, as they define the conditions that data must satisfy and the business rules of an organisation.

Traditionally, checking these conditions requires developers to manually programme mechanisms to detect potential constraint violations using custom code, triggers or stored procedures. This process can be complex, time-consuming and prone to errors, particularly when business rules are numerous or involve multiple database tables.

The implementation of SQL Assertions simplifies this process. Once the integrity constraints have been defined, the database management system itself checks compliance with them and manages their revalidation automatically and efficiently. This reduces the need to develop additional code to perform these checks and makes applications easier to maintain.