referential integrity

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referential integrity The internal consistency of intrarecord references in a database, ensuring that if a record contains the key of, or a pointer to, another record in the database then this second record must actually exist and cannot in isolation be deleted. In the context of the relational model, it means that the set of values held for a foreign key must always be a subset of the set of values held in the relation of which it is the key.

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