Abstract: A system and method for enforcing referential integrity within a database system provides for determination of relevant referential constraints at compile time for an access plan. All referential constraints which are relevant to data changes to the database are identified when the access plan is created. Code necessary for performing referential constraint checks is inserted directly into the access plan at compile time, eliminating the necessity for determining the relevant constraints at run time. Constraint checking can be performed using substantially the same low-level procedural statements already used in the access plan for performing database accesses.