Microsoft KB Archive/322323

= INF: Implementing Referential Integrity and Cascading Actions (White Paper) =

Article ID: 322323

Article Last Modified on 10/3/2003

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q322323



SUMMARY
The white paper that this article references is a chapter excerpt from the book Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000 from APress Books. Database normalization is used to avoid duplicates in a database to avoid potential errors. Although database normalization minimizes the possibility of errors, it does not completely prevent them. There is still the need for a set of data-integrity rules to enforce the relationships between tables and to keep the database as consistent as possible. This set of rules is called referential integrity, and it is a part of the wider set of rules that enforce data integrity in general.

This document also explores the rules that are used to maintain referential integrity in various table relationships, with a focus on cascading actions. Cascading actions are actions that have to be performed on a secondary table to compensate when a primary table is modified.

This chapter also describes the use of declarative referential integrity and the use of triggers to maintain data integrity.

To view this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Implementing Referential Integrity and Cascading Actions

Additional query words: whitepaper KBwhitepaper

Keywords: kbinfo kbwhitepaper KB322323

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.