In Salesforce, what is a characteristic of master-detail relationships?

A master-detail relationship in Salesforce is defined by a strong dependency between the parent and child records. In this type of relationship, the child record, also known as the detail record, cannot exist without the parent record, or master record. This means that if the parent record is deleted, all associated child records are also deleted automatically.

This characteristic leads to data integrity since it ensures that dependent data (child records) does not exist in isolation without the context of their respective parent records. This cascading delete behavior is crucial for maintaining consistent data relationships and eliminating orphaned records, which reinforces the hierarchical integrity of the data model within Salesforce.

Understanding this relationship is fundamental for data architecture, as it affects how users can manage and interact with data in their Salesforce organization. Unlike other relationship types, such as lookup relationships, master-detail relationships offer this automatic clean-up feature which is essential in various scenarios where data dependencies are critical.