what is the difference between reference, referencing and extends,extending in a table?

[Sudesh Ram]

Hi Team,

  what is the difference between reference, referencing and extends,extending in a table?

[SaiRaviKiran Ak]

Hi,

Reference/Referencing

A reference field stores a reference to a field on another table. For example, the Caller field on the Incident table is a reference to the User [sys_user] table.

When you define a reference field, the system creates a relationship between the two tables. Adding a reference field to a form makes the other fields in the referenced table available to the form.

A reference field can refer only to records from one other table. To add a field that can refer to records on any table, use the Document ID element type.

Referencing is nothing but,if we take an example as a caller field. we can say caller field is "Referencing" to User table as it has user table as reference.

Extends/Extending :

Administrators and application developers typically extend tables to create a set of related records that share information. For example, in the base system, the Task and the Configuration Item tables have multiple extensions:

If we take an example: Incident table,problem table and change request table are Extending from the task table.

You can see Extends field while creating a new table. This is nothing but, from which table we want to extends our new table.

Extending a table:

• Links the new table to the extending table.
• Creates system fields in the new table.
• Creates one or more database tables to store the parent and child classes. The number of tables the system creates depends upon the extension model selected during table creation.

Please mark answer as Correct/Helpful,If it answers your question.

Thanks,

Ravi

[Sudesh Ram]

Thanks

[SaiRaviKiran Ak · Accepted solution]

Welcome !

Can you mark the answer as Correct?

[SriKrishnaB]

In Reference/Referencing  a field in one table points to a record in another table, creating a link between individual records (e.g., an Incident table has a caller field that references the User table).

where as Extends/Extending  a table inherits fields and behaviors from another table, creating a parent-child relationship between entire tables (e.g., the Incident table extends the Task table, meaning it inherits all the fields and functionalities of the Task table).
Hit the 👍 if its helpful.🤗