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What happens if you delete foreign key?

What happens if you delete foreign key?

When a referenced foreign key is deleted or updated, all rows referencing that key are deleted or updated, respectively. If there are other alterations to the row, such as a SET NULL or SET DEFAULT , the delete will take precedence.

Is a foreign key necessary?

24 Answers. Foreign keys help enforce referential integrity at the data level. They also improve performance because they’re normally indexed by default. Foreign keys can also help the programmer write less code using things like ON DELETE CASCADE .

How do I delete a foreign key in SQL?

Here’s the syntax for DROP FOREIGN KEY statement: ALTER TABLE table_name DROP FOREIGN KEY constraint_name; In the above drop foreign key query, specify table_name from which you want to remove foreign key, in place of table_name. Specify constraint name in place of constraint_name.

Can a foreign key be renamed?

MySQL does not provide an option to rename foreign keys on the fly. Typically the foreign key needs to be dropped and re-created. Adding and dropping a foreign key in the same ALTER TABLE statement is supported for ALTER TABLE ALGORITHM=INPLACE but not for ALTER TABLE …

Can we delete primary key from a table without deleting foreign key?

If you want the department to remain and to be able to do this, you will need to alter the foreign key to include ON DELETE SET NULL. Otherwise, you will have to drop the constraint, perform the delete, and recreate the constraint.

Does foreign key affect performance?

Foreign Keys are a referential integrity tool, not a performance tool. At least in SQL Server, the creation of an FK does not create an associated index, and you should create indexes on all FK fields to improve look up times. You should always create indexes on FK columns to reduce lookups.

Can a primary key be a foreign key?

Yes, it is legal to have a primary key being a foreign key. This is a rare construct, but it applies for: a 1:1 relation. The two tables cannot be merged in one because of different permissions and privileges only apply at table level (as of 2017, such a database would be odd).

Which statement should you use to remove a foreign key?

2 Comments on “Which statement should you use to remove a foreign key?”

  1. Amit. August 3, 2017 at 8:54 am. Ans is A. ALTER TABLE Orders. DROP CONSTRAINT FK_PersonOrder;
  2. avalon333. November 11, 2018 at 9:53 am. A is correct.

How do I remove a foreign key from a table?

You can try it if the commands do not work.

  1. Expand your database view.
  2. Right Click on Table which has foreign key constraint.
  3. Right click on the column which has the foreign key reference.
  4. A list of relationships will appear (if you have one) in a pop up window.
  5. From there you can delete the foreign key constraint.

Can you delete a table with a foreign key?

The first is that deleting from a table with self-referencing foreign key is not a serious problem for MySQL, as long as there is no row that references itself. If there is a row, as in your example, the options are limited. Either disable foreign keys or use CASCADE action.

How to delete a FOREIGN KEY constraint in SQL?

You want to drop a foreign key from a table in a database. We want to remove the foreign key named fk_student_city_id from the table student. To drop a foreign key from a table, use the ALTER TABLE clause with the name of the table (in our example, student) followed by the clause DROP CONSTRAINT with the name of the foreign key constraint.

What are the rules for foreign key update and delete?

Rules for update/delete operations may be specified explicitly. However if nothing is specified then the default rule is No Action. The rule may be changed to any other option at any time later by recreating the FK relation. Let’s create the foreign key with the default specification through T-SQL. Now populate the tables with sample data.

How to drop a foreign key in SQL Server?

The foreign key establishes a relationship between the product_id column in the inventory table and the product_id column in the products table. If we then wanted to drop the foreign key called fk_inv_product_id, we could execute the following command: