I have a table whose primary key is referenced in several other tables as a foreign key. For example:
CREATE TABLE `X` (
`X_id` int NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`X_id`)
)
CREATE TABLE `Y` (
`Y_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`X_id` int DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`Y_id`),
CONSTRAINT `Y_X` FOREIGN KEY (`X_id`) REFERENCES `X` (`X_id`)
)
CREATE TABLE `Z` (
`Z_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`X_id` int DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`Z_id`),
CONSTRAINT `Z_X` FOREIGN KEY (`X_id`) REFERENCES `X` (`X_id`)
)
Now, I don't know how many tables there are in the database that contain foreign keys into X like tables Y and Z. Is there a SQL query that I can use to return:
A list of tables that have foreign keys into X AND which of those tables actually have values in the foreign key
Here you go:
USE information_schema;
SELECT *
FROM
KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = 'X'
AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'X_id';
If you have multiple databases with similar tables/column names you may also wish to limit your query to a particular database:
SELECT *
FROM
KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = 'X'
AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'X_id'
AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'your_database_name';
MySQL 5.5 Reference Manual: "InnoDB and FOREIGN KEY Constraints"
SELECT
ke.REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA parentSchema,
ke.referenced_table_name parentTable,
ke.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME parentColumnName,
ke.TABLE_SCHEMA ChildSchema,
ke.table_name childTable,
ke.COLUMN_NAME ChildColumnName
FROM
information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE ke
WHERE
ke.referenced_table_name IS NOT NULL
AND ke.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'ci_id' ## Find Foreign Keys linked to this Primary Key
ORDER BY
ke.referenced_table_name;
This solution will not only display all relations but also the constraint name, which is required in some cases (e.g. drop constraint):
SELECT
CONCAT(table_name, '.', column_name) AS 'foreign key',
CONCAT(referenced_table_name, '.', referenced_column_name) AS 'references',
constraint_name AS 'constraint name'
FROM
information_schema.key_column_usage
WHERE
referenced_table_name IS NOT NULL;
If you want to check tables in a specific database, add the following:
AND table_schema = 'database_name';
You can find all schema related information in the wisely named information_schema
table.
You might want to check the table REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS
and KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
. The former tells you which tables are referenced by others; the latter will tell you how their fields are related.
Listing all foreign keys in a db including description
SELECT
i1.CONSTRAINT_NAME, i1.TABLE_NAME,i1.COLUMN_NAME,
i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA,i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME, i1.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME,
i2.UPDATE_RULE, i2.DELETE_RULE
FROM
information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE AS i1
INNER JOIN
information_schema.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS AS i2
ON i1.CONSTRAINT_NAME = i2.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME IS NOT NULL
AND i1.TABLE_SCHEMA ='db_name';
restricting to a specific column in a table table
AND i1.table_name = 'target_tb_name' AND i1.column_name = 'target_col_name'
I wrote a little bash onliner that you can write to a script to get a friendly output:
mysql_references_to:
mysql -uUSER -pPASS -A DB_NAME -se "USE information_schema; SELECT * FROM KEY_COLUMN_USAGE WHERE REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = '$1' AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'id'\G" | sed 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//' |egrep "\<TABLE_NAME|\<COLUMN_NAME" |sed 's/TABLE_NAME: /./g' |sed 's/COLUMN_NAME: //g' | paste -sd "," -| tr '.' '\n' |sed 's/,$//' |sed 's/,/./'
So the execution: mysql_references_to transaccion
(where transaccion is a random table name) gives an output like this:
carrito_transaccion.transaccion_id
comanda_detalle.transaccion_id
comanda_detalle_devolucion.transaccion_positiva_id
comanda_detalle_devolucion.transaccion_negativa_id
comanda_transaccion.transaccion_id
cuenta_operacion.transaccion_id
...
SELECT TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME FROM information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE WHERE CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA
LIKE 'your_database' AND TABLE_SCHEMA
LIKE 'your_database' AND REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA
LIKE 'your_database' AND REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME
LIKE 'your_table' AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME
LIKE 'your_column';
06 2022
Based on @Panayotis answer but with better structure.
This will list out all the constrains from multiple tables.
I have included the TABLE_SCHEMA
to show the database name too.
SQL
SELECT
TABLE_SCHEMA AS 'Database',
TABLE_NAME AS t1,
REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME AS 't2 (reference table)',
COLUMN_NAME AS 't1 column',
REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME AS 't2 column (reference table)',
CONSTRAINT_NAME AS 't1 (constrain name)'
FROM
information_schema.key_column_usage
WHERE
referenced_table_name IS NOT NULL
Output
+------------+------------+---------------------+---------------+----------------------------+------------------------+
| Database | t1 | t2 (reference table) | t1 column | t2 column (reference table) | t1 (constrain name) |
+============+============+=====================+===============+============================+========================+
| foobar | credential | userdetail | userdetail_fk | id | credentialUserdetailFk |
+------------+------------+---------------------+---------------+----------------------------+------------------------+
| foobar | loginlog | userdetail | userdetail_fk | id | loginlogUserdetailFk |
+------------+------------+---------------------+---------------+----------------------------+------------------------+
+ client | userdetail | client | client_fk | id | userdetailClientFk |
+------------+------------+---------------------+---------------+----------------------------+------------------------+
Easiest: 1. Open phpMyAdmin 2. On the left click database name 3. On the top right corner find "Designer" tab
All constraints will be shown there.
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