Oracle Check Constraint

Question

I struggled with this check restriction for several hours and hoped that someone would be kind enough to explain why this check restriction does not do what I think it should do.

ALTER TABLE CLIENTS
add CONSTRAINT CHK_DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID CHECK ((IS_DISABLED IS NULL AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL) OR (IS_DISABLED = 0 AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL) OR (IS_DISABLED = 1));

Essentially, you have to be disabled to collect disability income. The first part of this control restriction (IS_DISABLED IS NULL AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL)does not seem to apply (see below).

The available values ​​for DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_IDare 1 and 2, which are entered through a foreign key. And IS_DISABLED, and DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_IDcan be empty.

-- incorrectly succeeds (Why?)
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (null, 1);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (null, 2);

-- correctly fails
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (0, 1);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (0, 2);

-- correctly succeeds
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (0, null);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (1, 1);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (1, 2);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (1, null);
INSERT INTO CLIENTS (IS_DISABLED, DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID) VALUES (null, null);

Thanks for your help, Michael.

Answer 1

Oracle, PostgreSQL (IS_DISABLED NULL DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID 1):

postgres=> select (null is null and 1 is null);
 ?column?
----------
 f
(1 registro)

postgres=> select (null is null and 1 is null) or (null = 0 and 1 is null);
 ?column?
----------
 f
(1 registro)

postgres=> select (null is null and 1 is null) or (null = 0 and 1 is null) or (null = 1);
 ?column?
----------

(1 registro)

, ( , PostgreSQL) NULL. ,

[...] , TRUE UNKNOWN, . - FALSE, , . [...]

, Oracle , PostgreSQL, .

, , NULL shenanigans, , :

CHECK ((IS_DISABLED IS NULL AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL)
    OR (IS_DISABLED IS NOT NULL AND IS_DISABLED = 0 AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL)
    OR (IS_DISABLED IS NOT NULL AND IS_DISABLED = 1));

Answer 2

NVL .

Answer 3

I am not sure why compound validation does not work, but it works:

ALTER TABLE CLIENTS ADD CONSTRAINT CHK_1 CHECK (IS_DISABLED = 0 AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL)

ALTER TABLE CLIENTS ADD CONSTRAINT CHK_2 CHECK (IS_DISABLED IS NULL AND DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID IS NULL)

ALTER TABLE CLIENTS ADD CONSTRAINT CHK_3 CHECK (IS_DISABLED = 1)

Relationship To

Answer 4

This solution works.

CHECK
((IS_DISABLED IS NULL AND NVL(DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID, 0) = 0)
OR (IS_DISABLED = 0 AND NVL(DISABILITY_INCOME_TYPE_ID, 0) = 0) 
OR (IS_DISABLED IS NOT NULL AND IS_DISABLED = 1));