Re: Enforcing Referential Integrity: Pros vs. Cons?

Richard Hollenbeck wrote:

> I'm not an ABSOLUTE newbie, but probably a relative newbie compared to many
> in this group. I've been programming in Access using VBA with DAO. Ever
> since I began, I thought it would ALWAYS been better to enforce referential
> integrity with cascading deletes and cascading updates to keep data
> synchronized among related tables. My thoughts were influenced by the idea
> that if a database were properly normalized, there should not be a reason
> why I shouldn't enforce this referential integrity. Am I correct or not?
> Are there any reasons why I would not? I'm assuming there is a reason
> because Access provides the option to enforce or not enforce. What are some
> very valid reasons why one would choose to not enforce? Is not enforcing
> just a cheap way to get around a poorly normalized database?

The lack of valid reasons never stopped Microsoft or any other vendor before. Why would the lack surprise you now? Received on Fri Nov 26 2004 - 22:43:30 CET