SQL's Design Flaws: How Concurrency Bugs Undermine Database Correctness
By
ingve
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
This article critiques SQL and relational database design, arguing that they make it easy to introduce serious concurrency bugs. Using a textbook money-transfer procedure as an example, the author demonstrates how seemingly reasonable SQL code can contain critical bugs related to atomicity, concurrency, and transaction isolation. The article warns against using SQL when correctness is paramount, highlighting fundamental design flaws that can lead to data corruption or money disappearing in production systems.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe design of SQL and relational database systems makes it easy to accidentally introduce serious concurrency bugs.
The code looks completely reasonable, but it has several critical bugs.
First, if this procedure aborts midway through, we might transfer money from Alice's account without transferring any to Bob.
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