What I think William is referring to and may be easier to implement is Person table - PersonID, Name, other attributes.

PersonRelationship

PersonID ParentID

In this case we should be able to create relations and use referential integrity.


>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I've got a SQL Server Express 2008 R2 database which has a Person table where I store People and their dependents like this:
>>>
>>>PersonId
>>>Name
>>>ParentId
>>>
>>>So one PersonID can have many dependents by storing their ID in the ParentID field (simple self join).
>>>
>>>I want to set up referential Integrity on this table so that if a parent is deleted, their dependents are deleted (cascade). I created a database diagram, dropped my Person table on it and then dragged the PersonId field to the ParentID field. However, when I try to set the Delete Rule to Cascade, it is disabled.
>>>
>>>How can I do this?\
>>
>>I don't believe such complex RI is supported. Most likely you need to implement this RI through the trigger.
>
>Should this do it:
>
>

CREATE TRIGGER PersonsDeleteDependents 
>   ON  Persons
>   FOR DELETE
>AS 
>BEGIN
>	-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
>	-- interfering with SELECT statements.
>	SET NOCOUNT ON;
>
>    -- Insert statements for trigger here
>    delete Persons
>    from Persons
>    inner join deleted on deleted.personid = persons.parentid
>
>END

>
>?