How do I see all foreign keys to a table or column?

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In MySQL, how do I get a list of all foreign key constraints pointing to a particular table? a particular column? This is the same thing as this Oracle question, but for MySQL.

16 Answers

For a Table:

SELECT 
  TABLE_NAME,COLUMN_NAME,CONSTRAINT_NAME, REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME,REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME
FROM
  INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
  REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA = '<database>' AND
  REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = '<table>';

For a Column:

SELECT 
  TABLE_NAME,COLUMN_NAME,CONSTRAINT_NAME, REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME,REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME
FROM
  INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
  REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA = '<database>' AND
  REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = '<table>' AND
  REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = '<column>';

Basically, we changed REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME with REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME in the where clause.

If you use InnoDB and defined FK's you could query the information_schema database e.g.:

SELECT * FROM information_schema.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS 
WHERE information_schema.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS.CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' 
AND information_schema.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS.TABLE_SCHEMA = 'myschema'
AND information_schema.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS.TABLE_NAME = 'mytable';

Constraints in SQL are the rules defined for the data in a table. Constraints also limit the types of data that go into the table. If new data does not abide by these rules the action is aborted.

select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS where CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY';

You can view all constraints by using select * from information_schema.table_constraints;

(This will produce a lot of table data).

You can also use this for MySQL:

show create table tableName;

I'm reluctant to add yet another answer, but I've had to beg, borrow and steal from the others to get what I want, which is a complete list of all the FK relationships on tables in a given schema, INCLUDING FKs to tables in other schemas. The two crucial recordsets are information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE and information_schema.referential_constraints. If an attribute you want is missing, just uncomment the KCU., RC. to see what's available

SELECT DISTINCT KCU.TABLE_NAME, KCU.COLUMN_NAME, REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA, KCU.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME, KCU.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME, UPDATE_RULE, DELETE_RULE #, KCU.*, RC.*
FROM information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU
INNER JOIN information_schema.referential_constraints RC ON KCU.CONSTRAINT_NAME = RC.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = (your schema name)
AND KCU.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY KCU.TABLE_NAME, KCU.COLUMN_NAME;

The solution I came up with is fragile; it relies on django's naming convention for foreign keys.

USE information_schema;
tee mysql_output
SELECT * FROM TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY' AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'database_name';
notee

Then, in the shell,

grep 'refs_tablename_id' mysql_output

It's often helpful to know the update and delete behaviour, which the other answers don't provide. So here goes.

SELECT cu.table_name,
       cu.column_name,
       cu.constraint_name,
       cu.referenced_table_name,
       cu.referenced_column_name,
       IF(rc.update_rule = 'NO ACTION', 'RESTRICT', rc.update_rule) AS update_rule,-- See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1498015/2742117
       IF(rc.delete_rule = 'NO ACTION', 'RESTRICT', rc.delete_rule) AS delete_rule -- See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1498015/2742117
FROM information_schema.key_column_usage cu
INNER JOIN information_schema.referential_constraints rc ON rc.constraint_schema = cu.table_schema
AND rc.table_name = cu.table_name
AND rc.constraint_name = cu.constraint_name
WHERE cu.referenced_table_schema = '<your schema>'
  AND cu.referenced_table_name = '<your table>';

I needed a bird's-eye-view on the relationships among the tables (to use in an ORM). Using the suggestions from this page, and after experimenting, I've put together the following query:

SELECT
    KCU.CONSTRAINT_NAME,
    KCU.TABLE_NAME,
    KCU.COLUMN_NAME,
    KCU.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME,
    KCU.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME
FROM
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE AS KCU
    JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS COLS
        ON
                COLS.TABLE_SCHEMA = KCU.TABLE_SCHEMA
            AND COLS.TABLE_NAME   = KCU.TABLE_NAME
            AND COLS.COLUMN_NAME  = KCU.COLUMN_NAME
WHERE
        KCU.CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA = {YOUR_SCHEMA_NAME}
    AND KCU.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY
    KCU.TABLE_NAME,
    COLS.ORDINAL_POSITION

It returns just what I need, and in the order that I want.

I also do little processing on the result (turn it into a some kind of dictionary), so that it's ready to be used for creating an aggregate.

I had a "myprodb" MySql database and for checking all foreign keys in this data base I used the following simple command.

select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS where CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA = 'myprodb' AND CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY';

I hope it help.

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