A circular reference, or sometimes known as a run-around by some people, is a series of references where the last object references the first, thus causing the whole series of references to be unusable.
Circular references in business
Often, improperly planned business support will result in a circular reference. This is known as a run-around.
For example:
- Alice needs to return her new 120GB hard drive - it's defective and she needs a working hard drive. She is instructed by Bob of customer service to report to Carol of returns and exchanges for the requested service. Carol, however, tells Alice to report to David. David tells Alice to talk to Bob.
The entire set of references is now worthless because none of them can satisfy Alice's request; they have been told to refer to someone else.
See also