To ensure the validity of data in a database, you need to formulate checks to define valid and invalid data, and design rules to which data must adhere (also known as business rules). Typically, business rules are implemented through check constraints, user-defined data types, and the appropriate use of transactions.

Constraints that are built into the database are more reliable than constraints that are built into client applications or that are provided as instructions to database users. Constraints built into the database become part of the definition of the database itself, and the database enforces them consistently across all applications. Setting a constraint once in the database imposes it for all subsequent interactions with the database.

In contrast, constraints built into client applications are vulnerable every time the software changes, and may need to be imposed in several applications, or in several places in a single client application.