Creating a Reference

You can create a reference that links a primary key, or alternate key, to a foreign key, or user-specified columns in both parent and child tables.

You can create a reference in any of the following ways:

Use the Reference tool in the Toolbox.
Select Model > References to access the List of References, and click the Add a Row tool.
Right-click the model (or a package) in the Browser, and select New > Reference.

Depending on its properties, a reference can link a parent table and a child table in one of two ways:

Reference links	Description
Primary key, alternate key and foreign keys	A Primary or alternate key in the parent table is linked to a foreign key in the child table
User-specified columns	One or more columns in the parent table are linked to corresponding columns in the child table. The linked columns in both tables are specified by the user, and are linked independently of primary key, alternate key, and foreign key columns

For general information about creating objects, see Core Features Guide > Modeling with PowerDesigner > Objects.