Disable constraints in SQL Server tables

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/159038/how-can-foreign-key-constraints-be-temporarily-disabled-using-t-sql

If you want to disable all constraints in the database just run this code: -- disable all constraints EXEC sp_msforeachtable "ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT all" To switch them back on, run: (the print is optional of course and it is just listing the tables) -- enable all constraints exec sp_msforeachtable @command1="print '?'", @command2="ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT all" I find it useful when populating data from one database to another. It is much better approach than dropping constraints. As you mentioned it comes handy when dropping all the data in the database and repopulating it (say in test environment). If you are deleting all the data you may find this solution to be helpful.