Final answer:
A delete statement can conflict with a REFERENCE constraint even if there are no matching records in the referenced table if the constraint is defined as ON DELETE CASCADE.
Step-by-step explanation:
A delete statement can conflict with a REFERENCE constraint even if there are no matching records in the referenced table if the constraint is defined as ON DELETE CASCADE. This means that when a record is deleted from the referencing table, any related records in the referenced table will also be deleted. If there are no matching records in the referenced table, the delete statement will still cause a conflict because it violates the constraint.
For example, let's say we have two tables: Orders (referencing table) and Customers (referenced table). The Orders table has a foreign key constraint that references the primary key in the Customers table. If we try to delete a record from the Customers table that has no matching records in the Orders table, a conflict will occur because of the ON DELETE CASCADE constraint. Therefore, even if there are no matching records in the referenced table, a delete statement can still conflict with a REFERENCE constraint if the constraint has a cascading effect.