How can I list all foreign keys referencing a given table in SQL Server?

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chillitom picture chillitom · Jan 27, 2009 · Viewed 667.4k times · Source

I need to remove a highly referenced table in a SQL Server database. How can I get a list of all the foreign key constraints I will need to remove in order to drop the table?

(SQL answers preferable over clicking about in the GUI of the management studio.)

Answer

Recep picture Recep · Oct 18, 2012

Not sure why no one suggested but I use sp_fkeys to query foreign keys for a given table:

EXEC sp_fkeys 'TableName'

You can also specify the schema:

EXEC sp_fkeys @pktable_name = 'TableName', @pktable_owner = 'dbo'

Without specifying the schema, the docs state the following:

If pktable_owner is not specified, the default table visibility rules of the underlying DBMS apply.

In SQL Server, if the current user owns a table with the specified name, that table's columns are returned. If pktable_owner is not specified and the current user does not own a table with the specified pktable_name, the procedure looks for a table with the specified pktable_name owned by the database owner. If one exists, that table's columns are returned.

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