Cannot truncate table because it is being referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint?

Correct; you cannot truncate a table which has an FK constraint on it.

Typically my process for this is:

1. Drop the constraints
2. Trunc the table
3. Recreate the constraints.

(All in a transaction, of course.)

Of course, this only applies if the child has already been truncated. Otherwise I go a different route, dependent entirely on what my data looks like. (Too many variables to get into here.)

The original poster determined WHY this is the case; see this answer for more details.

Because TRUNCATE TABLE is a DDL command, it cannot check to see whether the records in the table are being referenced by a record in the child table.

This is why DELETE works and TRUNCATE TABLE doesn't: because the database is able to make sure that it isn't being referenced by another record.

@denver_citizen and @Peter Szanto's answers didn't quite work for me, but I modified them to account for:

1. Composite Keys
2. On Delete and On Update actions
3. Checking the index when re-adding
4. Schemas other than dbo
5. Multiple tables at once

DECLARE @Debug bit = 0;

-- List of tables to truncate
select
    SchemaName, Name
into #tables
from (values 
    ('schema', 'table')
    ,('schema2', 'table2')
) as X(SchemaName, Name)


BEGIN TRANSACTION TruncateTrans;

with foreignKeys AS (
     SELECT 
        SCHEMA_NAME(fk.schema_id) as SchemaName
        ,fk.Name as ConstraintName
        ,OBJECT_NAME(fk.parent_object_id) as TableName
        ,SCHEMA_NAME(t.SCHEMA_ID) as ReferencedSchemaName
        ,OBJECT_NAME(fk.referenced_object_id) as ReferencedTableName
        ,fc.constraint_column_id
        ,COL_NAME(fk.parent_object_id, fc.parent_column_id) AS ColumnName
        ,COL_NAME(fk.referenced_object_id, fc.referenced_column_id) as ReferencedColumnName
        ,fk.delete_referential_action_desc
        ,fk.update_referential_action_desc
    FROM sys.foreign_keys AS fk
        JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc
            ON fk.object_id = fc.constraint_object_id
        JOIN #tables tbl 
            ON OBJECT_NAME(fc.referenced_object_id) = tbl.Name
        JOIN sys.tables t on OBJECT_NAME(t.object_id) = tbl.Name 
            and SCHEMA_NAME(t.schema_id) = tbl.SchemaName
            and t.OBJECT_ID = fc.referenced_object_id
)



select
    quotename(fk.ConstraintName) AS ConstraintName
    ,quotename(fk.SchemaName) + '.' + quotename(fk.TableName) AS TableName
    ,quotename(fk.ReferencedSchemaName) + '.' + quotename(fk.ReferencedTableName) AS ReferencedTableName
    ,replace(fk.delete_referential_action_desc, '_', ' ') AS DeleteAction
    ,replace(fk.update_referential_action_desc, '_', ' ') AS UpdateAction
    ,STUFF((
        SELECT ',' + quotename(fk2.ColumnName)
        FROM foreignKeys fk2 
        WHERE fk2.ConstraintName = fk.ConstraintName and fk2.SchemaName = fk.SchemaName
        ORDER BY fk2.constraint_column_id
        FOR XML PATH('')
    ),1,1,'') AS ColumnNames
    ,STUFF((
        SELECT ',' + quotename(fk2.ReferencedColumnName)
        FROM foreignKeys fk2 
        WHERE fk2.ConstraintName = fk.ConstraintName and fk2.SchemaName = fk.SchemaName
        ORDER BY fk2.constraint_column_id
        FOR XML PATH('')
    ),1,1,'') AS ReferencedColumnNames
into #FKs
from foreignKeys fk
GROUP BY fk.SchemaName, fk.ConstraintName, fk.TableName, fk.ReferencedSchemaName, fk.ReferencedTableName, fk.delete_referential_action_desc, fk.update_referential_action_desc



-- Drop FKs
select 
    identity(int,1,1) as ID,
    'ALTER TABLE ' + fk.TableName + ' DROP CONSTRAINT ' + fk.ConstraintName AS script
into #scripts
from #FKs fk

-- Truncate 
insert into #scripts
select distinct 
    'TRUNCATE TABLE ' + quotename(tbl.SchemaName) + '.' + quotename(tbl.Name) AS script
from #tables tbl

-- Recreate
insert into #scripts
select 
    'ALTER TABLE ' + fk.TableName + 
    ' WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT ' + fk.ConstraintName + 
    ' FOREIGN KEY ('+ fk.ColumnNames +')' + 
    ' REFERENCES ' + fk.ReferencedTableName +' ('+ fk.ReferencedColumnNames +')' +
    ' ON DELETE ' + fk.DeleteAction COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS + ' ON UPDATE ' + fk.UpdateAction COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS AS script
from #FKs fk


DECLARE @script nvarchar(MAX);

DECLARE curScripts CURSOR FOR 
    select script
    from #scripts
    order by ID

OPEN curScripts

WHILE 1=1 BEGIN
    FETCH NEXT FROM curScripts INTO @script
    IF @@FETCH_STATUS != 0 BREAK;

    print @script;
    IF @Debug = 0
        EXEC (@script);
END
CLOSE curScripts
DEALLOCATE curScripts


drop table #scripts
drop table #FKs
drop table #tables


COMMIT TRANSACTION TruncateTrans;

The only way is to drop foreign keys before doing the truncate. And after truncating the data, you must re-create the indexes.

The following script generates the required SQL for dropping all foreign key constraints.

DECLARE @drop NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'';

SELECT @drop += N'
ALTER TABLE ' + QUOTENAME(cs.name) + '.' + QUOTENAME(ct.name) 
    + ' DROP CONSTRAINT ' + QUOTENAME(fk.name) + ';'
FROM sys.foreign_keys AS fk
INNER JOIN sys.tables AS ct
  ON fk.parent_object_id = ct.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS cs 
  ON ct.[schema_id] = cs.[schema_id];

SELECT @drop

Next, the following script generates the required SQL for re-creating foreign keys.

DECLARE @create NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'';

SELECT @create += N'
ALTER TABLE ' 
   + QUOTENAME(cs.name) + '.' + QUOTENAME(ct.name) 
   + ' ADD CONSTRAINT ' + QUOTENAME(fk.name) 
   + ' FOREIGN KEY (' + STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(c.name)
   -- get all the columns in the constraint table
    FROM sys.columns AS c 
    INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fkc 
    ON fkc.parent_column_id = c.column_id
    AND fkc.parent_object_id = c.[object_id]
    WHERE fkc.constraint_object_id = fk.[object_id]
    ORDER BY fkc.constraint_column_id 
    FOR XML PATH(N''), TYPE).value(N'.[1]', N'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, N'')
  + ') REFERENCES ' + QUOTENAME(rs.name) + '.' + QUOTENAME(rt.name)
  + '(' + STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(c.name)
   -- get all the referenced columns
    FROM sys.columns AS c 
    INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fkc 
    ON fkc.referenced_column_id = c.column_id
    AND fkc.referenced_object_id = c.[object_id]
    WHERE fkc.constraint_object_id = fk.[object_id]
    ORDER BY fkc.constraint_column_id 
    FOR XML PATH(N''), TYPE).value(N'.[1]', N'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, N'') + ');'
FROM sys.foreign_keys AS fk
INNER JOIN sys.tables AS rt -- referenced table
  ON fk.referenced_object_id = rt.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS rs 
  ON rt.[schema_id] = rs.[schema_id]
INNER JOIN sys.tables AS ct -- constraint table
  ON fk.parent_object_id = ct.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS cs 
  ON ct.[schema_id] = cs.[schema_id]
WHERE rt.is_ms_shipped = 0 AND ct.is_ms_shipped = 0;

SELECT @create

Run the generated script to drop all foreign keys, truncate tables, and then run the generated script to re-create all foreign keys.

The queries are taken from here.

Delete then reset auto-increment:

delete from tablename;

then

ALTER TABLE tablename AUTO_INCREMENT = 1;

This is an example for someone that use Entity Framework

• Table to be reset: Foo

• Another table that depends on: Bar

• Constraint Column on table Foo : FooColumn

• Constraint Column on table Bar : BarColumn

   public override void Down()
   {
       DropForeignKey("dbo.Bar", "BarColumn", "dbo.Foo");
       Sql("TRUNCATE TABLE Foo");
       AddForeignKey("dbo.Bar", "BarColumn", "dbo.Foo", "FooColumn", cascadeDelete: true);
   }
  

I have just found that you can use TRUNCATE table on a parent table with foreign key constraints on a child as long as you DISABLE the constraints on the child table first. E.g.

Foreign key CONSTRAINT child_par_ref on child table, references PARENT_TABLE

ALTER TABLE CHILD_TABLE DISABLE CONSTRAINT child_par_ref;
TRUNCATE TABLE CHILD_TABLE;
TRUNCATE TABLE PARENT_TABLE;
ALTER TABLE CHILD_TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT child_par_ref;