Should I check for DB constraints in code or should I catch exceptions thrown by DB

Question

I have an application that saves data into a table called Jobs. The Jobs table has a column called Name which has a UNIQUE constraint. The Name column is not PRIMARY KEY. I wond

Answer 1

I would leave that work entirely to the database; your code should focus on catching and properly handling the exception.

Reasons:

1. Performance- The database will be highly optimized to enforce constraints in a fast and efficient way. You won't have time to optimize your code as well.
2. Maintainability- If the constraints change in the future, you won't have to modify your code, or perhaps you will just have to add a new catch{}. If a constraint is dropped, you won't have to touch your code at all.