How to Maintain Column Integrity With Access 2007

When you create tables in your databases using the Microsoft Office Access 2010 application, you can create relationships among the different fields you add. Once you've established relationships among your records, you can enforce referential integrity, which is a feature that enables records in your columns to be synchronized and not referenced with any other records in your database that don't exist. It's important to turn on referential integrity to make sure your table relationship rejects any items that shouldn't be used.

Instructions

1. Open the Microsoft Access 2010 application on your computer, and click the "File" tab. Click the "Open" option.

2. Select your database that you want to maintain column integrity with, and then click the "Open" button.

3. Click the "Database Tools" tab, and then click the "Relationships" option. The Relationship window will appear.

4. Select the relationship line in the Relationships window, and then the line will appear thicker. Double-click the relationship line.

5. Click the box next to the "Enforce Referential Integrity" field so that it's selected in the "Edit Relationships" dialog box.

6. Click the "OK" button to close out of the "Edit Relationships" dialog box. Column integrity will be maintained.

References

• Microsoft Office: Guide to Table Relationships