Can you enforce Referential Integrity on a liked table?

[MariaL]

Good evening everyone. I have linked a table into my database from another access database. I related the table to the appropriate tables, but it would not let me enforce referential integrity on the relationship. The area is grey on the window. Is there another way to accomplish this task?
Thank you for your time and help.

 

[RickSpr]

No, there's no way to do this. The problem is that for every SQL update statement executed on the local table (which includes updates via forms, table and query datasheets, and VBA/DAO code), Jet would have to open the external database, check the integrity constraints, and then close the database again. (It can't leave the database open because that could interfere unnecessarily and pointlessly with other users' access to it. For example, what if you just left your local database open overnight without doing anything? If the external database were kept open, the network admins wouldn't be able to back it up.)

All that opening and closing takes a lot of time. The performance would be horrendous.


Rick Sprague
Want the best answers? See faq181-2886
To write a program from scratch, first create the universe. - Paraphrased from Albert Einstein