Straw poll: use of triggers to enforce data format rules.

For a while now I have used before insert triggers to enforce data formatting rules, such as applying UPPER to certain fields. This is a habit I picked up in the mists of time, and never really thought about before...
...until just now, when a colleague questioned the wisdom of this practice, in language too colourful for a family forum like this. So the question is: is this good practice or not?
In the particularly case in point, I could have used (and may yet implement) a foreign key to a reference code table, which would enforce uppercaseness as a side effect. Alternatively I could have used a CHECK CONSTRAINT, but the potential values are too fluid for that.
I am interested in your opinion on the general principle: is it right for the database to enforce formatting without the user being aware of the change?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers, APC

Andrew:
In principle, I would not disagree with enforcing formatting in the database, as long as that formatting is required to satisfy a business requirement (e.g. one of our departments has a business rule that all medications must be stored in upper case, dosage information and frequency must be all lower case).
In your case in point, I would absolutely enforce upper case in the database if you are going to enforce a foreign key. If the code value is stored upper case in the code table, then a trigger to UPPER(code) in the child table is appropriate since an end-user would likely be confused by a constraint violation between 'ABC' and 'abc'. Even if you are not going to enforce the FK, I would assume that you will join to the parent with some frequency, so having both in the same format makes the joins a lot easier.
My argument against a check constraint to enforce upper case would be based on the (hypothetical, but realistic) user thought process of:
"Damm application keeps making me re-type everything, so I'm just going to put the caps lock key on AND SHOUT AT THE DATABASE".
Having said that, if you are just enforcing upper case to get case insensitive searches, then function based indexes get around that problem without forcing formatting.
My $0.02 CDN (about a ha'penny)
John
P.S. You may want to get a better class of colleague.

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import java.io.Serializable;
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Metro Infomation Services.
Mala (guest) wrote:
: For all the date fields in my Oracle Forms application i have
set
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does
: not put the date in the above format, forms raises an error. I
: want to be able to let the user enter the date in any format
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Hi, Peter !
Unfortunately, I hurted some days and could not worked.
I shall try to state a problem more full.
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Hi,
i am using this method to convert date format from string.
public static string FormatDate(string inputDate, string inputFormat)
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string datepresent = DateTime.Now.Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
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its working properly,
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Have you tried the above code:
I can see it is working with both Date and DateTime destination nodes.
Map:
Functoid Parameters:
Functoid Script:
public static string FormatDate(string inputDate, string inputFormat)
string datepresent;
if (inputDate == "00000000")
datepresent = "0000-00-00";
else
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datepresent = date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
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</ns0:InputDateString>
Output:
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<Date>0000-00-00</Date>
</ns0:OutputDate>
If this answers your question please mark as answer. If this post is helpful, please vote as helpful.

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or
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or
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XI: Date format

hello all,
I have developed business scenario that is oracle system to R/3 system. data is sending successfully but the only problem with the data format..
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hi
use these thread for change date format
change in UDF according to your requirement
udf for changing date faormat yyyy/mm/dd to yyyymmdd
Re: UDF for Date Funtions
UDF for Date format
Re: UDF Function
UDF for Date format

Straw poll: use of triggers to enforce data format rules.

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