If you have no FK, the day will come that your data corrupts. Tiny application bug, wrong manual data fix, incomplete datamodel communication. It's a case of when, not if. And when it happens, it can fester for weeks or months, corrupting all kinds of data in unfixable ways.
If you have FK, you can go all-in on relational. The stuff is so powerfull, you'd be dumb not to. But then comes the too-smart-optimizer problem. Just like with compilers and opengl shaders, the tiniest change might make you fall off the optimizer's preferred path and get a way-to-slow version. Even when no code has changed, a minor DB version or even a tiny shift in statistics will kill you.
Personally, I tend to consider integrity more important than performance, but both have a zone where they are good enough to make trading off worthwile.
So I do FKs and joins, and count on rigorous testing and monitoring to keep things in check. Someone else might decide otherwise. Both strategies require you to do the unsexy part of the wirk, or a harsh punishment will follow.
If you have no FK, the day will come that your data corrupts. Tiny application bug, wrong manual data fix, incomplete datamodel communication. It's a case of when, not if. And when it happens, it can fester for weeks or months, corrupting all kinds of data in unfixable ways.
If you have FK, you can go all-in on relational. The stuff is so powerfull, you'd be dumb not to. But then comes the too-smart-optimizer problem. Just like with compilers and opengl shaders, the tiniest change might make you fall off the optimizer's preferred path and get a way-to-slow version. Even when no code has changed, a minor DB version or even a tiny shift in statistics will kill you.
Personally, I tend to consider integrity more important than performance, but both have a zone where they are good enough to make trading off worthwile.
So I do FKs and joins, and count on rigorous testing and monitoring to keep things in check. Someone else might decide otherwise. Both strategies require you to do the unsexy part of the wirk, or a harsh punishment will follow.