referential integrity

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

referential integrity

   <database> A collection of properties which should be
   possessed by data in a {relational database}.

   For example, in a database of family members, if we enter A as
   a spouse of B, we should also enter B as a spouse of A.
   Similarly, if we remove one end of the relationship we should
   also remove the other.

   (1998-02-18)