Does the "Delete" Delete Rule property ensure referential integrity in relationships?

The "Delete" Delete Rule property does not ensure referential integrity in relationships; rather, it determines what happens to related records when a parent record is deleted. This property can be set to different behaviors, such as allowing the deletion of a parent record while leaving child records intact, or cascading the delete operation to child records as well.

When a delete action is performed, the Delete Rule can define whether related entries remain in the database or are also removed. However, the concept of referential integrity is broader; it refers to the systematic integrity of relationships between tables or entities in a database. It is more concerned with ensuring that relationships remain valid, especially when records are deleted or updated.

In practice, managing referential integrity usually involves constraints imposed at the database level, such as foreign key constraints, which help to maintain valid references between tables. The Delete Rule alone does not guarantee that these constraints are enforced; it simply dictates the behavior of deletion actions within the data model. Therefore, the assertion that the Delete Rule property ensures referential integrity is incorrect.