A guarantee, upheld by foreign key constraints in a relational database management system, that no foreign key refers to a missing row; any change that would break such a link is refused.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Referential integrity in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- FK
Short for foreign key: a column pointing at the primary key of a different table. Azure Databricks treats both key constraint types as information only and does not enforce them.
- RDBMS
Relational database management system. This software runs the database and can normally enforce referential integrity, so that an unmatched foreign key value (one pointing to no existing primary key) is refused.
Related terms
- Blank row
When fact rows carry a key that doesn't exist in the related one-side table, a regular relationship gathers them under an added virtual row, so referential integrity problems surface as (Blank). Limited relationships don't do this.
- Foreign key
Ties two tables together by storing, in a column of one, the primary key values of matching rows in the other; referential integrity can then be enforced by the database.
- Model relationship
A connection between columns in two semantic model tables, with a cardinality and a cross-filter direction, that lets filters flow from one table to the other. It does not check referential integrity.