Propagation constraint: Difference between revisions

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In database systems, a '''propagation constraint''' "details what should happen to a related table when we update a row or rows of a target table" (Paul Beynon-Davies, 2004, p.108). Tables are linked using [[primary key]] to [[foreign key]] relationships. It is possible for users to update one table in a relationship in such a way that the relationship is no longer consistent and this is known as breaking [[referential integrity]]. An example of breaking referential integrity: if a table of employees includes a department number for 'Housewares' which is a foreign key to a table of departments and a user deletes that department from the department table then Housewares employees records would refer to a non-existent department number.

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Propagation constraintconstraints inare methods used aby [[relational database]] referesmanagement to how consistency is maintained between coupled tables. According to [[Beynon-Daviessystem]]s (2004, p.108RDBMS) "''[a] propagation constraint details what should happen to asolve relatedthis tableproblem whenby weensuring updatethat arelationships rowbetween ortables rowsare ofpreserved awithout target table''"error. HeIn furtherhis statesdatabase thattextbook, forBeynon-Davies allexplains relationships,the onethree shouldways definethat how toRDBMS handle deletions of target and related [[tuple]]s. There are three possibilities:

* '''Restricted Delete''' - the user cannot delete the target row until all rows that point to it (via [[foreign key]]s) have been deleted. This means that all Housewares employees would need to be deleted, or their departments changed, before removing the department from the departmental table.

* '''Cascades Delete''' - can delete the target row and all rows that point to it (via foreign keys) are also deleted. The process is the same as a restricted delete, except that the RDBMS would delete the Houseware employees automatically before removing the department.

* '''Nullifies Delete''' - can delete the target row and all foreign keys (pointing to it) are set to [[Null (SQL)|null]]. In this case, after removing the housewares department, employees who worked in this department would have a [[Null (SQL)|NULL]] (unknown) value for their department.

==Bibliography==

*Beynon-Davies, P. (2004) ''Database Systems'' Third Edition, [[Palgrave Macmillan]].

[[Category:DataRelational modelingdatabase management systems]]

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