Referential Integrity

[Shannon]

I borrowed a book, but reading is slow and vague. Can
someone describe referential integrity and cascaded
relationships? The user wants to update changes through
out the database on some issues (tables) but not others.
For instance; if a property owner sells the property, the
Property and Dock information should be updated with the
new property owner's info, but the Citations should not
affect the new property owner.

In the past I have never done anything but the default on
related tables (the past has been very short). I'll keep
reading, but if I could hear (or read) it using this
example, I would understand a little faster.

Thanks in advance, Shannon

 

[Steve Schapel]

Shannon,

The questions of Referential Integrity and Cascades is not relevant to
the example you described.

Referential Integrity, if it was enforced, would mean that you could
not enter a Person (ID) as the property owner if the Person did not
exist in the database. Cascade Delete would mean that if a Person was
deleted from the database, all Properties that that person owns would
automatically get deleted. Cascade Update would mean that if you have
a Code identifier for a property, and this for some reason got
changed, the change would automatically be reflected in the other data
related to that property.

None of this is, nor can be, related to the question of ownership
transfer. This is a data entry/editing process.

- Steve Schapel, Microsoft Access MVP