Database Conventions

Database Conventions

Design and operational guidelines for relational databases (PostgreSQL primary dialect; MySQL/SQLite notes included where they differ). Apply these when creating schemas, reviewing migrations, or writing queries.

Naming

• Tables: snake_case, plural (users, audit_logs, order_items)
• Columns: snake_case, singular (user_id, created_at, is_active)
• Primary keys: id (serial/UUID)
• Foreign keys: <referenced_table_singular>_id (user_id, order_id)
• Booleans: is_ or has_ prefix (is_active, has_verified_email)
• Timestamps: created_at, updated_at, deleted_at (UTC, with timezone)

Schema design

• Every table has a primary key. Prefer UUID (gen_random_uuid()) for distributed or externally-exposed IDs; serial/bigserial for internal join tables where IDs never leave the DB.
• Always store timestamps with timezone (TIMESTAMPTZ in Postgres).
• Soft-delete via deleted_at IS NULL filter, not DELETE — unless you have a clear data retention policy that requires hard deletes.
• Avoid TEXT for constrained values — use an ENUM or a lookup table so the DB enforces the constraint.

-- Good: constrained status field
CREATE TYPE order_status AS ENUM ('pending', 'paid', 'shipped', 'cancelled');

CREATE TABLE orders (
    id          UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    user_id     UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES users(id),
    status      order_status NOT NULL DEFAULT 'pending',
    total_cents INTEGER NOT NULL CHECK (total_cents >= 0),
    created_at  TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW(),
    updated_at  TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Indexes

• Every foreign key column gets an index (Postgres doesn't auto-index FKs).
• Add an index on any column used in a WHERE, ORDER BY, or JOIN in frequently-run queries.
• Composite indexes: column order matters — put equality conditions first, range/sort columns last.
• Don't index every column — indexes slow writes and consume storage.

-- Required: FK index
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_id ON orders(user_id);

-- Composite: user_id first (equality), created_at second (range/sort)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_created ON orders(user_id, created_at DESC);

Migrations

Never edit a migration that has been applied anywhere. Migrations are immutable once run — treat them like published git commits.

Rules:

• Each migration does one logical change.
• Every migration is reversible — provide a down migration.
• Adding a column: always nullable or with a DEFAULT so existing rows are not blocked during migration.
• Renaming a column: two-migration pattern (add new → backfill → drop old) to avoid downtime for live deploys.
• Dropping a column or table: mark as NOT NULL removal / unused first, deploy, then drop in a subsequent release.

-- WRONG: adds NOT NULL column without a default → fails on existing rows
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN phone_number VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL;

-- RIGHT: nullable first, add default/constraint in a follow-up migration
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN phone_number VARCHAR(20);

N+1 queries

N+1 occurs when you load a list of N records and then execute 1 query per record to load related data.

# WRONG: N+1 — one query for users, then one per user for posts
users = db.query(User).all()
for user in users:
    posts = db.query(Post).filter_by(user_id=user.id).all()  # N queries

# RIGHT: eager load with a JOIN or subquery
users = db.query(User).options(joinedload(User.posts)).all()

Detect N+1 in development: log slow queries, use query count assertions in tests, or use a tool like sqlalchemy-utils's query counter.

Transactions

Use transactions for any multi-step operation where partial completion would leave the data in an inconsistent state.

# WRONG: transfer without transaction — debit can succeed while credit fails
account_a.balance -= amount
account_b.balance += amount

# RIGHT: wrap in a transaction
with db.begin():
    account_a.balance -= amount
    account_b.balance += amount

Rules:

• Keep transactions as short as possible — hold locks for the minimum time.
• Don't make external HTTP calls inside a transaction.
• Read-only queries don't need transactions (but REPEATABLE READ isolation may be appropriate for consistent multi-query reads).

Query review checklist

• All user-supplied values in parameterised queries (no string interpolation)
• Foreign keys are indexed
• SELECT * replaced with explicit column list in production queries
• Pagination uses LIMIT + OFFSET or cursor-based (prefer cursor for large sets)
• No N+1 pattern in loops
• Multi-step writes wrapped in a transaction
• Migrations are reversible and don't add NOT NULL columns without defaults