How to find all tables that have foreign keys that

Question

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:

1. A list of tables that have foreign keys into X
2. AND which of those tables actually have values in the foreign key

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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
...

Answer 4

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'

Answer 5

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;

Answer 6

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';