> Is there anyway to know if a DELETE will violate an FK > without actually trying it?
I don't know what you mean by 'without trying it', but does the following answer your question? CREATE TABLE a (id integer PRIMARY KEY); CREATE TABLE b (id integer PRIMARY KEY, a_id integer NOT NULL CONSTRAINT b_fkey REFERENCES a(id)); INSERT INTO a (id) VALUES (1); INSERT INTO b (id, a_id) VALUES (42, 1); DELETE FROM a WHERE id=1; ERROR: update or delete on table "a" violates foreign key constraint "b_fkey" on table "b" DETAIL: Key (id)=(1) is still referenced from table "b". Yours, Laurenz Albe ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster