Final answer:
The system likely enforced referential integrity to prevent the deletion of a customer with open invoices.
Step-by-step explanation:
If Cindy was unable to delete a customer because the customer had open invoices, it is likely that a referential integrity constraint was enforced. Referential integrity is a concept in database management systems that ensures the consistency and accuracy of data by enforcing relationships between tables. In this case, the system prevented Cindy from deleting the customer because there were related records (open invoices) that depended on the customer's existence.
For example, let's say there are two tables: Customers and Invoices. The Customers table stores information about customers, while the Invoices table stores information about individual invoices. If the two tables are related by a foreign key relationship, where the Invoices table has a foreign key column referencing the Customers table, the referential integrity constraint would prevent deleting a customer if there are related records in the Invoices table.
In summary, the system likely enforced referential integrity to maintain data consistency and prevent the deletion of a customer with open invoices.