Question

I have a very large Oracle database, with many many tables and millions of rows. I need to delete one of them, but want to make sure that dropping it will not break any other dependent rows that point to it as a foreign key record. Is there a way to get a list of all the other records, or at least table schemas, that point to this row? I know that I could just try to delete it myself, and catch the exception, but I won’t be running the script myself and need it to run clean the first time through.

I have the tools SQL Developer from Oracle, and PL/SQL Developer from AllRoundAutomations at my disposal.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I always look at the Foreign keys for the starting table and work my way back. The DB tools usually have a dependencies or constraints node. I know PL/SQL Developer has a way to see FK’s, but it’s been a while since I have used it, so I can’t explain it…

just replace XXXXXXXXXXXX with a table name…

/* The following query lists all relationships */ 

select
 a.owner||'.'||a.table_name "Referenced Table"
,b.owner||'.'||b.table_name "Referenced by"
,b.constraint_name "Foreign Key"
from all_constraints a, all_constraints b 
where 
b.constraint_type = 'R'
and a.constraint_name = b.r_constraint_name 
and b.table_name='XXXXXXXXXXXX' -- Table name 
order by a.owner||'.'||a.table_name