Originally Posted by
ButtonMoon
The problem here is that "relationships" (in the Access sense) have nothing to do with referential integrity. The thing called a relationship in the Access UI is actually a fairly pointless feature for predefining a type of join between tables in the database. It's something that didn't ought to exist in any relational database. Unfortunately perhaps, to enforce referential integrity through the Access UI you first have to create a relationship and then check the "enforce" option. If you are inclined to try it you can bypass this "feature" by using SQL DDL statements in a query window - but not surprisingly, many people will find that too much trouble.
My recommendation: don't create relationships unless you intend to enforce referential integrity (RI). If you do want to enforce RI then it is better to do it in the database rather than in a form or application. Doing it in the database means you create the constraint once and it applies everywhere. You don't have to maintain the rule separately in every application and you don't need to worry about any data getting into the table that doesn't satisfy the RI constraint.