Synopsis: See No Evil
Explore the 'See No Evil' application development antipattern in SQL, which involves ignoring or mishandling database errors. Understand why checking for errors is crucial for reliable database programming and how writing concise, error-aware code reduces bugs and improves application stability.
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“I found another bug in your product,” the voice on the phone said.
I got this call while working as a technical support engineer for an SQL RDBMS in the 1990s. We had one customer, Mr. Davis, who was well-known for making spurious reports against our database. Nearly all of his reports turned out to be simple mistakes on his part, not bugs.
“Good morning, Mr. Davis. Of course, we’d like to fix any problem you find,” I answered. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I ran a query against your database, and nothing came back.” Mr. Davis said sharply. “But I know the data is in the database — ...