Entity integrity and referential integrity are two important concepts in database design. Entity integrity ensures that each row in a table is unique, while referential integrity ensures that the foreign keys in a table refer to valid values in the parent table.

A database that displays both entity integrity and referential integrity is a well-designed database that is less likely to experience errors.

Entity integrity is important in a database because it ensures that each row in a table is unique. This is important because it allows the database to track each entity in the database separately. For example, if you have a table of customers, each customer row should be unique. This means that no two customers can have the same customer ID.

Referential integrity is important in a database because it ensures that the foreign keys in a table refer to valid values in the parent table. This is important because it prevents orphaned rows from being created in the database. For example, if you have a table of orders and a table of customers, the customer ID in the orders table should refer to a valid customer ID in the customers table. This ensures that no orders are created for customers that do not exist.

Here is an application example to support my discussion:

Let’s say you have a database of students and their grades. The students table would have a primary key of student ID, and the grades table would have a foreign key of student ID. This ensures that each student in the grades table has a corresponding row in the students table.

If a student is deleted from the students table, the corresponding row in the grades table would also be deleted. This is because the foreign key in the grades table would no longer refer to a valid value in the students table.

Entity integrity and referential integrity are important concepts in database design. By ensuring that each row in a table is unique and that the foreign keys in a table refer to valid values, you can create a well-designed database that is less likely to experience errors.