Is NATURAL (JOIN) considered harmful in production environment?

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NATURAL JOIN syntax is anti-pattern:

  • The purpose of the query is less obvious;
    • the columns used by the application is not clear
    • the columns used can change “unexpectedly”
  • The syntax goes against the modularity rule, about using strict typing whenever possible. Explicit is almost universally better.

Because of this, I don’t recommend the syntax in any environment.
I also don’t recommend mixing syntax (IE: using both NATURAL JOIN and explicit INNER/OUTER JOIN syntax) – keep a consistent codebase format.

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