List tables by foreign-key dependencies PostgreSQL (also works on MS-SQL with minor modifications)

Foreign_key_dependencies_PGSQL.sql

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS CTE_AllTables; 
-- CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE IF NOT EXISTS CTE_AllTables 

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE CTE_AllTables AS 
SELECT 
	 ist.table_schema AS OnTableSchema 
	,ist.table_name AS OnTableName  
	,tForeignKeyInformation.FkNullable 
	-- WARNING: TableSchema or Tablename can contain entry-separator (';' used) 
	,CAST(DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY ist.table_schema, ist.table_name) AS varchar(20)) AS OnTableId 
	,tForeignKeyInformation.AgainstTableSchema AS AgainstTableSchema 
	,tForeignKeyInformation.AgainstTableName AS AgainstTableName 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES AS ist 

LEFT JOIN 
( 
    SELECT 
         KCU1.table_schema AS OnTableSchema 
        ,KCU1.table_name AS OnTableName 
	-- ,isc.COLUMN_NAME -- WARNING: Multi-column foreign-keys 
	,MIN(isc.IS_NULLABLE) AS FkNullable -- if (x·'YES' + 1⁺·'NO') ==> pick NO, else pick YES 
        ,KCU2.table_schema AS AgainstTableSchema 
	,KCU2.table_name AS AgainstTableName 
    FROM information_schema.referential_constraints AS RC 
    
    INNER JOIN information_schema.key_column_usage AS KCU1 
        ON KCU1.constraint_catalog = RC.constraint_catalog 
        AND KCU1.constraint_schema = RC.constraint_schema 
        AND KCU1.constraint_name = RC.constraint_name 
		
    INNER JOIN information_schema.key_column_usage AS KCU2 
        ON KCU2.constraint_catalog =  RC.constraint_catalog 
        AND KCU2.constraint_schema = RC.unique_constraint_schema 
        AND KCU2.constraint_name = RC.unique_constraint_name 
        AND KCU2.ordinal_position = KCU1.ordinal_position 
		
    INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS isc 
        ON isc.table_name = KCU1.table_name 
        AND isc.table_schema = KCU1.table_schema 
        AND isc.table_catalog = KCU1.table_catalog 
        AND isc.column_name = KCU1.column_name 
		
		
	-- WARNING: table can have recursive dependency on itselfs... 
	-- if it is ommitted, table doesn't appear because of NOCYCLE-check 
	WHERE KCU1.table_name <> KCU2.table_name 

	GROUP BY 
		 KCU1.table_schema -- OnTableSchema 
		,KCU1.table_name -- OnTableName 
		,KCU2.table_schema -- AgainstTableSchema 
		,KCU2.table_name -- AgainstTableName 

	-- Uncomment below when you only want to check FKs that aren't nullable 
	-- HAVING MIN(isc.IS_NULLABLE) = 'NO' 
) AS tForeignKeyInformation 
	ON tForeignKeyInformation.OnTableName = ist.table_name 
	AND tForeignKeyInformation.OnTableSchema = ist.table_schema 

WHERE (1=1) 
AND ist.table_type = 'BASE TABLE' 
AND ist.table_schema NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema') 

--AND NOT 
--( 
--	ist.table_schema = 'dbo' 
--	AND 
--	ist.table_name IN  
--	( 
--		 'MSreplication_options', 'spt_fallback_db', 'spt_fallback_dev', 'spt_fallback_usg', 'spt_monitor' 
--		 ,'sysdiagrams', 'dtproperties' 
--	) 
--) 

-- AND ist.table_name LIKE 'T[_]%' 
-- AND ist.table_name NOT LIKE '%[_]bak[_]%' 
-- AND ist.table_name NOT LIKE 'T[_]LOG[_]%' 

ORDER BY OnTableSchema, OnTableName 
; 


-- SELECT DISTINCT OnTableSchema, OnTableName FROM #CTE_AllTables; 


; WITH RECURSIVE CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution AS 
( 
	SELECT 
		 OnTableSchema 
		,OnTableName 
		,FkNullable 
		,AgainstTableSchema 
		,AgainstTableName 
		,CONCAT(N';', OnTableSchema, N'.',  OnTableName, N';') AS PathName 
		--,CAST(N';' || OnTableSchema  || N'.' || OnTableName || N';' AS text) AS PathName 
		--,CAST(';' || OnTableId || ';' AS text) AS Path 
		,CONCAT(';', OnTableId, ';' ) AS Path 
		,0 AS lvl 
	FROM CTE_AllTables 
	WHERE (1=1) 
	AND AgainstTableName IS NULL 


	UNION ALL 


	SELECT 
		 CTE_AllTables.OnTableSchema 
		,CTE_AllTables.OnTableName 
		,CTE_AllTables.FkNullable 
		,CTE_AllTables.AgainstTableSchema 
		,CTE_AllTables.AgainstTableName 
		,CONCAT(CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.PathName, CTE_AllTables.OnTableSchema, N'.', CTE_AllTables.OnTableName, N';') AS PathName 
		--,CAST(CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.PathName || CTE_AllTables.OnTableSchema || N'.' || CTE_AllTables.OnTableName || N';' AS text) AS PathName 
		--,CAST(CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.Path || CTE_AllTables.OnTableId || N';' AS text) AS Path 
		,CONCAT(CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.Path, CTE_AllTables.OnTableId, N';') AS Path 
		,CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.Lvl + 1 AS Lvl 
	FROM CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution 

	INNER JOIN CTE_AllTables 
		ON CTE_AllTables.AgainstTableName = CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.OnTableName 
		AND CTE_AllTables.AgainstTableSchema = CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.OnTableSchema 
		-- NOCYCLE-check - WARNING: Recursion source must not contain same-table foreign-key(s) 
		AND CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution.Path NOT LIKE '%;' || CTE_AllTables.OnTableId || ';%' 
) 
-- SELECT * FROM CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution; 
-- SELECT * FROM CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution WHERE AgainstTableName = 'T_FMS_Navigation'; 

SELECT 
	 MAX(lvl) AS Level 
	,OnTableSchema 
	,OnTableName 
	,MIN(FkNullable) AS FkNullable 
	 
	-- T-SQL: 
	--,N'DELETE FROM ' + QUOTENAME(OnTableSchema) + N'.' + QUOTENAME(OnTableName) + N'; ' AS cmdDelete 
	--,N'TRUNCATE TABLE ' + QUOTENAME(OnTableSchema) + N'.' + QUOTENAME(OnTableName) + N'; ' AS cmdTruncate 
	--,N'DBCC CHECKIDENT (''' + REPLACE(OnTableSchema, N'''', N'''''') + '.' + REPLACE(OnTableName, N'''', N'''''') + N''', RESEED, 0)' AS cmdReseed 
	 
	-- plPgSQL: 
	--,'DELETE FROM ' || QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableSchema) || '.' || QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableName) || ';' || ' ' AS cmdDelete 
	,CONCAT(N'DELETE FROM ', QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableSchema), N'.', QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableName), N'; ') AS cmdDelete 
	
	-- ,N'TRUNCATE TABLE ' || QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableSchema) || N'.' || QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableName) || N'; ' AS cmdTruncate 
	,CONCAT(N'TRUNCATE TABLE ', QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableSchema), N'.', QUOTE_IDENT(OnTableName), N'; ') AS cmdTruncate1 
FROM CTE_RecursiveDependencyResolution 

GROUP BY OnTableSchema, OnTableName 

ORDER BY 
	 Level, 
	 OnTableSchema 
	,OnTableName 
	,FkNullable 
	 
-- OPTION (MAXRECURSION 0) 
; 

-- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS CTE_AllTables; 

Thank you for posting this. Found it in a google search and it helped me do what I needed.

Thank you!

@deinspanjer, @rockbr: You're welcome, glad you found it useful.
I put it up here so that I can easily & quickly fetch it on all my computers, though ;)

@ststeiger

I used it to create a program that creates the migration files and seeds for the CodeIgniter framework. I needed to create hierarchically.
Thanks !

great ! thanks.

@ststeiger

This is a brilliant query. 👏 👏 👏

No answer on StackOverflow comes close to your query's correctness.

@ststeiger . This is awesome! Question. Let's say I have a query like DELETE FROM customers WHERE id = $1. Is there any way to adapt this query to list cascade deletes in reverse order? For example:

create table customers (id uuid primary key);
create table users (id uuid primary key, customer_id uuid references customers (id));
create table messages (id uuid primary key, customer_id uuid references customers (id), user_id uuid references users(id));

Is there any way to list this as messages, then users, then customers?