Disable Foreign key constraint on a table?

Question

Can i temporaryly disable a foreign key constraint. How do i do this?

Answer 1

To temporarily disable a constraint (foreign keys are constraints):

ALTER TABLE MyTable NOCHECK CONSTRAINT MyConstraint

To re-enable a constraint

ALTER TABLE MyTable CHECK CONSTRAINT MyConstraint

Answer 2

Check also this related question:

Can foreign key constraints be temporarily disabled using TSQL?

Answer 3

Incidentally, this is why you need "Alter table" permissions when you BCP or Bulk Insert data into a table. Using the default configuration, check constraints and foreign keys are not checked.