CASCADE DELETE just once

Question

I have a Postgresql database on which I want to do a few cascading deletes. However, the tables aren't set up with the ON DELETE CASCADE rule. Is there any way I can perform a delete and tell Postgresql to cascade it just this once? Something equivalent to

DELETE FROM some_table CASCADE;

The answers to this older question make it seem like so such solution exists, but I figured I'd ask this question explicitly just to be sure.

Answer 1

No. To do it just once you would simply write the delete statement for the table you want to cascade.

DELETE FROM some_child_table WHERE some_fk_fiekd IN SELECT some_id FROM some_Table;
DELETE FROM some_table;

Answer 2

The delete with the cascade option only applied to tables with foreign keys defined. If you do a delete, and it says you cannot because it would violate the foreign key constraint, the cascade will cause it to delete the offending rows.

If you want to delete associated rows in this way, you will need to define the foreign keys first. Also, remember that unless you explicitly instruct it to begin a transaction, or you change the defaults, it will do an auto-commit, which could be very time consuming to clean up.

Answer 3

If I understand correctly, you should be able to do what you want by dropping the foreign key constraint, adding a new one (which will cascade), doing your stuff, and recreating the restricting foreign key constraint.

For example:

testing=# create table a (id integer primary key);
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "a_pkey" for table "a"
CREATE TABLE
testing=# create table b (id integer references a);
CREATE TABLE

-- put some data in the table
testing=# insert into a values(1);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into a values(2);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into b values(2);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into b values(1);
INSERT 0 1

-- restricting works
testing=# delete from a where id=1;
ERROR:  update or delete on table "a" violates foreign key constraint "b_id_fkey" on table "b"
DETAIL:  Key (id)=(1) is still referenced from table "b".

-- find the name of the constraint
testing=# \d b;
       Table "public.b"
 Column |  Type   | Modifiers 
--------+---------+-----------
 id     | integer | 
Foreign-key constraints:
    "b_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES a(id)

-- drop the constraint
testing=# alter table b drop constraint b_a_id_fkey;
ALTER TABLE

-- create a cascading one
testing=# alter table b add FOREIGN KEY (id) references a(id) on delete cascade; 
ALTER TABLE

testing=# delete from a where id=1;
DELETE 1
testing=# select * from a;
 id 
----
  2
(1 row)

testing=# select * from b;
 id 
----
  2
(1 row)

-- it works, do your stuff.
-- [stuff]

-- recreate the previous state
testing=# \d b;
       Table "public.b"
 Column |  Type   | Modifiers 
--------+---------+-----------
 id     | integer | 
Foreign-key constraints:
    "b_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES a(id) ON DELETE CASCADE

testing=# alter table b drop constraint b_id_fkey;
ALTER TABLE
testing=# alter table b add FOREIGN KEY (id) references a(id) on delete restrict; 
ALTER TABLE

Of course, you should abstract stuff like that into a procedure, for the sake of your mental health.

Answer 4

Grant's answer is partly wrong - Postgresql doesn't support CASCADE on DELETE queries.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/dml-delete.html

Answer 5

On Postgres you can use the TRUNCATE command, assuming you didn't want to specify a WHERE clause:

TRUNCATE some_table CASCADE;

Handily this is transactional (i.e. can be rolled back), although it is not fully isolated from other concurrent transactions, and has several other caveats. Read the docs for details.