Understanding Import Option about outbound references

Question

Can somebody explain to me in simple terms what this Import configuration option really does? I've looked and looked at this and it still confuses me.

Missing objects outbound references
Ignore - A missing object will still have it's outbound references even if the referenced object is present in the imported data
Remove - A missing object will have it's outbound references removed if the referenced object is present in the imported data.

David Sumlin_4luvfd · Answer

OK, that makes sense, but that seems to be a duplicate of what the next import configuration option says:

Empty Values

When an object is updated, should empty values from the external source remove the existing value.

Ignore

Remove

Is one option ONLY for object attributes, and the other option ONLY for value attributes?

Björn Gullander · Answer

Hi,

Firstly, these are only valid for attributes that are object references.

Explaining by example is easiest

* We are importing Employees which has a reference to a Department object type.
* We already have an existing Employee object in Insight which is connected to for example the HR department. 
* We do a new import and in the import file there is no department set for the specific employee

If we have these preconditions fulfilled, the import options will give the following result:

* Ignore - Employee will still be connected to HR
* Remove - Employee's reference to HR will be removed