What to do when I want to use database constraints but only mark as deleted instead of deleting?

Question

I am working in a project where database items are not deleted, but only marked as deleted. Something like this:

id   name     deleted
---  -------  --------         


        

Answer 1

The problem with a compound unique constraint is that it's not possible to have multiple records with the same name that are deleted. This means that the system will break once you delete a third record. I wouldn't recommend appending stuff to the names because, theoretically, a duplicate situation could arise. Also, by doing so, you are basically corrupting the data in the database as well as adding cryptic business logic to the data itself.

The only possible solution, database wide, is to add a trigger that checks that the inserted/updated data is valid. It's also possible to put the checks outside of the database, into code.