Delete Foreign Key Relationships

You can delete a foreign key constraint in SQL Server 2012 by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL. Deleting a foreign key constraint removes the requirement to enforce referential integrity.

In This Topic

  • Before you begin:

    Security

  • To delete a foreign key constraint, using:

    SQL Server Management Studio

    Transact-SQL

Before You Begin

Security

Permissions

Requires ALTER permission on the table.

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Using SQL Server Management Studio

To delete a foreign key constraint

  1. In Object Explorer, expand the table with the constraint and then expand Keys.

  2. Right-click the constraint and then click Delete.

  3. In the Delete Object dialog box, click OK.

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Using Transact-SQL

To delete a foreign key constraint

  1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine.

  2. On the Standard bar, click New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute.

    USE AdventureWorks2012;
    GO
    ALTER TABLE dbo.DocExe 
    DROP CONSTRAINT FK_Column_B; 
    GO
    

For more information, see ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL).

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