Turn off constraints temporarily (MS SQL)

Question

I'm looking for a way to temporarily turn off all DB's constraints (eg table relationships).

I need to copy (using INSERTs) one DB's tables to another DB. I know I can achieve that by executing commands in proper order (to not break relationships).

But it would be easier if I could turn off checking constraints temporarily and turn it back on after the operation's finish.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

And, if you want to verify that you HAVEN'T broken your relationships and introduced orphans, once you have re-armed your checks, i.e.

ALTER TABLE foo CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL

or

ALTER TABLE foo CHECK CONSTRAINT FK_something

then you can run back in and do an update against any checked columns like so:

UPDATE myUpdatedTable SET someCol = someCol, fkCol = fkCol, etc = etc

And any errors at that point will be due to failure to meet constraints.

Answer 2

-- Disable the constraints on a table called tableName:
ALTER TABLE tableName NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL

-- Re-enable the constraints on a table called tableName:
ALTER TABLE tableName WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL
---------------------------------------------------------

-- Disable constraints for all tables:
EXEC sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT all'

-- Re-enable constraints for all tables:
EXEC sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT all'
---------------------------------------------------------

Answer 3

You can disable FK and CHECK constraints only in SQL 2005+. See ALTER TABLE

ALTER TABLE foo NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL

or

ALTER TABLE foo NOCHECK CONSTRAINT CK_foo_column

Primary keys and unique constraints can not be disabled, but this should be OK if I've understood you correctly.

Answer 4

You can actually disable all database constraints in a single SQL command and the re-enable them calling another single command. See:

• Can foreign key constraints be temporarily disabled using TSQL?

I am currently working with SQL Server 2005 but I am almost sure that this approach worked with SQL 2000 as well

Answer 5

Disabling and Enabling All Foreign Keys

CREATE PROCEDURE pr_Disable_Triggers_v2
    @disable BIT = 1
AS
    DECLARE @sql VARCHAR(500)
        ,   @tableName VARCHAR(128)
        ,   @tableSchema VARCHAR(128)

    -- List of all tables
    DECLARE triggerCursor CURSOR FOR
        SELECT  t.TABLE_NAME AS TableName
            ,   t.TABLE_SCHEMA AS TableSchema
        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
        ORDER BY t.TABLE_NAME, t.TABLE_SCHEMA

    OPEN    triggerCursor
    FETCH NEXT FROM triggerCursor INTO @tableName, @tableSchema
    WHILE ( @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 )
    BEGIN

        SET @sql = 'ALTER TABLE ' + @tableSchema + '.[' + @tableName + '] '
        IF @disable = 1
            SET @sql = @sql + ' DISABLE TRIGGER ALL'
        ELSE
            SET @sql = @sql + ' ENABLE TRIGGER ALL'

        PRINT 'Executing Statement - ' + @sql
        EXECUTE ( @sql )

        FETCH NEXT FROM triggerCursor INTO @tableName, @tableSchema

    END

    CLOSE triggerCursor
    DEALLOCATE triggerCursor

First, the foreignKeyCursor cursor is declared as the SELECT statement that gathers the list of foreign keys and their table names. Next, the cursor is opened and the initial FETCH statement is executed. This FETCH statement will read the first row's data into the local variables @foreignKeyName and @tableName. When looping through a cursor, you can check the @@FETCH_STATUS for a value of 0, which indicates that the fetch was successful. This means the loop will continue to move forward so it can get each successive foreign key from the rowset. @@FETCH_STATUS is available to all cursors on the connection. So if you are looping through multiple cursors, it is important to check the value of @@FETCH_STATUS in the statement immediately following the FETCH statement. @@FETCH_STATUS will reflect the status for the most recent FETCH operation on the connection. Valid values for @@FETCH_STATUS are:

0 = FETCH was successful
-1 = FETCH was unsuccessful
-2 = the row that was fetched is missing

Inside the loop, the code builds the ALTER TABLE command differently depending on whether the intention is to disable or enable the foreign key constraint (using the CHECK or NOCHECK keyword). The statement is then printed as a message so its progress can be observed and then the statement is executed. Finally, when all rows have been iterated through, the stored procedure closes and deallocates the cursor.

see Disabling Constraints and Triggers from MSDN Magazine