What's your #1 way to be careful with a live database? [closed]

Answer 1

BACK UP YOUR DATA. Learned that one the hard way working with customer databases on a regular basis.

Answer 2

Backup or dump the database before starting.

Answer 3

Always add a using clause.

Answer 4

Make your changes to a copy, and when you're satisfied, then apply the fix to live.

Answer 5

Create a read only user (or get the DBA to do it) and only use that user to look at the DB. Add the appropriate permissions to schema so that you can view the content of stored procedures/views/triggers/etc. but not have the ability to change them.

Answer 6

Always make sure your UPDATEs and DELETEs have the proper WHERE clause.