On MS Access, in table relationships, what does enforcing referential integrity mean?
Enforcing referential integrity assumes two or more tables have a parent to child relationship. For the child or detail record to exist, then you must have a parent or master record. Example: Let’s say you have a database where you list all of your properties in each room. The Parent or Master table would be a record listing each room in the house, i.e. Living Room, Kitchen, Bedroom, etc. The Child or detail table would contain a record for each item being inventoried, i.e. Computer in living room, television in bedroom, etc. If you have child records tied to master records, then “enforcing referential integrity” will not allow you to delete a master record as long as a child record exists. Alternatively, you can set the property of the link to delete all child records when you delete a master record. This all makes sure that you will never end up with orphaned child records.
