What Is Referential Integrity in Oracle

Referential integrity (foreign key constraint) is one way Oracle provides for maintaining business rules. Relational systems allow control of business rules with constraints, and referential integrity rules form the backbone of relational tables.

What is referential integrity?

Referential integrity refers to the relationship between tables. Because each table in a database must have a primary key, this primary key can appear in other tables because of its relationship to data within those tables. … Referential integrity is the logical dependency of a foreign key on a primary key.

What is referential integrity rule?

A referential integrity rule is a rule defined on a key (a column or set of columns) in one table that guarantees that the values in that key match the values in a key in a related table (the referenced value). … When a referenced row is deleted, all associated dependent rows are deleted.