Interview Question #3

My brother called, he had forgotten a WHERE clause and had lost some data.  I felt really bad for him -- the kind of sinking feeling you get when someone you know has a death in the family.  I can relate -- I have forgotten a few WHERE clauses in the past couple of years.  Right after he called I checked my database backups to make sure they where still running every night.

This reminded me of one of my favorite interview questions: "Tell me about the last time you forgot a WHERE clause?"  I am looking for that sinking recognition that takes place when someone knows the question and can relate.  And if they have never forgotten a WHERE clause -- I just know they haven't programmed much T-SQL, cause we all do it from time to time.  I also want to hear how they recovered their data and what they are doing differently to prevent the problem.  A developer I know at work always writes the WHERE clause before he writes the DELETE or UPDATE line just to prevent the aforementioned.

Maybe SQL Management tool should have an optional warning that makes you confirm that you want to run a DELETE or UPDATE when there is no WHERE clause?

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