SoftDeletes

SoftDeletes is a technique used in database design and application development to mark records as inactive rather than permanently removing them. Instead of a hard delete operation that removes a row from a table, a soft delete modifies a specific field within the record, typically a boolean flag or a timestamp, to indicate that the record is no longer considered active. This approach preserves the data in the database, allowing for potential recovery or auditing purposes.

Implementing soft deletes usually involves adding a column to the relevant table. Common naming conventions for this column include "deleted_at", "is_deleted", or "active". When a record is "deleted," this field is updated. For example, a "deleted_at" column might be set to the current timestamp, while an "is_deleted" column would be set to true. When querying the data, applications must include a condition to only retrieve records that are not marked as deleted. This is often a clause like "WHERE deleted_at IS NULL" or "WHERE is_deleted = false".

The primary advantages of soft deletes include data recovery, auditing, and maintaining referential integrity. If a record is accidentally soft-deleted, it can be easily restored by simply reverting the change to the deletion flag. Auditing is simplified as historical data remains accessible. Furthermore, if other tables have foreign key constraints referencing the soft-deleted records, those relationships are not broken, preventing cascading deletion issues. However, soft deletes can increase database size over time and require careful query management to avoid retrieving or processing inactive data.