Displaying Referential Integrity and Cardinality on a Reference Symbol

To set display preferences for references, select Tools > Display Preferences, and select the Reference sub-category in the left-hand Category pane.

The notation for referential integrity on reference symbols is as follows:

upd() - Update
del() - Delete
cpa - Change Parent Allowed

A letter between the parentheses indicates the type of constraint:

( ) - None
(R) - Restrict
(C) - Cascade
(N) - Set null
(D) - Set default

The Cardinality attribute displays the minimum and maximum number of instances in a child table that can appear for each corresponding instance in the parent table as follows:

[minimum..maximum]

In the above example, the reference label displays:

Cascade on update
Set null on delete
Cardinality is 0..n (any number of children is acceptable)

For information about changing the notation of references, see Setting PDM Model Options. For detailed information about working with display preferences, see Core Features Guide > The PowerDesigner Interface > Diagrams, Matrices, and Symbols > Display Preferences.