Disable all table constraints in Oracle

Question

How can I disable all table constrains in Oracle with a single command? This can be either for a single table, a list of tables, or for all tables.

Answer 1

You can execute all the commands returned by the following query :

select 'ALTER TABLE '||substr(c.table_name,1,35)|| ' DISABLE CONSTRAINT '||constraint_name||' ;' from user_constraints c --where c.table_name = 'TABLE_NAME' ;

Answer 2

To take in count the dependencies between the constraints:

SET Serveroutput ON
BEGIN
    FOR c IN
    (SELECT c.owner,c.table_name,c.constraint_name
    FROM user_constraints c,user_tables t
    WHERE c.table_name=t.table_name
    AND c.status='ENABLED'
    ORDER BY c.constraint_type DESC,c.last_change DESC
    )
    LOOP
        FOR D IN
        (SELECT P.Table_Name Parent_Table,C1.Table_Name Child_Table,C1.Owner,P.Constraint_Name Parent_Constraint,
            c1.constraint_name Child_Constraint
        FROM user_constraints p
        JOIN user_constraints c1 ON(p.constraint_name=c1.r_constraint_name)
        WHERE(p.constraint_type='P'
        OR p.constraint_type='U')
        AND c1.constraint_type='R'
        AND p.table_name=UPPER(c.table_name)
        )
        LOOP
            dbms_output.put_line('. Disable the constraint ' || d.Child_Constraint ||' (on table '||d.owner || '.' ||
            d.Child_Table || ')') ;
            dbms_utility.exec_ddl_statement('alter table ' || d.owner || '.' ||d.Child_Table || ' disable constraint ' ||
            d.Child_Constraint) ;
        END LOOP;
    END LOOP;
END;
/

Answer 3

This is another way for disabling constraints (it came from https://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:2402577774283132::::P11_QUESTION_ID:399218963817)

WITH qry0 AS
       (SELECT    'ALTER TABLE '
               || child_tname
               || ' DISABLE CONSTRAINT '
               || child_cons_name
                 disable_fk
              ,   'ALTER TABLE '
               || parent_tname
               || ' DISABLE CONSTRAINT '
               || parent.parent_cons_name
                 disable_pk
          FROM (SELECT a.table_name child_tname
                      ,a.constraint_name child_cons_name
                      ,b.r_constraint_name parent_cons_name
                      ,LISTAGG ( column_name, ',') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY position) child_columns
                  FROM user_cons_columns a
                      ,user_constraints b
                 WHERE a.constraint_name = b.constraint_name AND b.constraint_type = 'R'
                GROUP BY a.table_name, a.constraint_name
                        ,b.r_constraint_name) child
              ,(SELECT a.constraint_name parent_cons_name
                      ,a.table_name parent_tname
                      ,LISTAGG ( column_name, ',') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY position) parent_columns
                  FROM user_cons_columns a
                      ,user_constraints b
                 WHERE a.constraint_name = b.constraint_name AND b.constraint_type IN ('P', 'U')
                GROUP BY a.table_name, a.constraint_name) parent
         WHERE child.parent_cons_name = parent.parent_cons_name
           AND (parent.parent_tname LIKE 'V2_%' OR child.child_tname LIKE 'V2_%'))
SELECT DISTINCT disable_pk
  FROM qry0
UNION
SELECT DISTINCT disable_fk
  FROM qry0;

works like a charm

Answer 4

SELECT 'ALTER TABLE '||substr(c.table_name,1,35)|| 
' DISABLE CONSTRAINT '||constraint_name||' ;' 
FROM user_constraints c, user_tables u 
WHERE c.table_name = u.table_name; 

This statement returns the commands which turn off all the constraints including primary key, foreign keys, and another constraints.

Answer 5

It is better to avoid writing out temporary spool files. Use a PL/SQL block. You can run this from SQL*Plus or put this thing into a package or procedure. The join to USER_TABLES is there to avoid view constraints.

It's unlikely that you really want to disable all constraints (including NOT NULL, primary keys, etc). You should think about putting constraint_type in the WHERE clause.

BEGIN
  FOR c IN
  (SELECT c.owner, c.table_name, c.constraint_name
   FROM user_constraints c, user_tables t
   WHERE c.table_name = t.table_name
   AND c.status = 'ENABLED'
   AND NOT (t.iot_type IS NOT NULL AND c.constraint_type = 'P')
   ORDER BY c.constraint_type DESC)
  LOOP
    dbms_utility.exec_ddl_statement('alter table "' || c.owner || '"."' || c.table_name || '" disable constraint ' || c.constraint_name);
  END LOOP;
END;
/

Enabling the constraints again is a bit tricker - you need to enable primary key constraints before you can reference them in a foreign key constraint. This can be done using an ORDER BY on constraint_type. 'P' = primary key, 'R' = foreign key.

BEGIN
  FOR c IN
  (SELECT c.owner, c.table_name, c.constraint_name
   FROM user_constraints c, user_tables t
   WHERE c.table_name = t.table_name
   AND c.status = 'DISABLED'
   ORDER BY c.constraint_type)
  LOOP
    dbms_utility.exec_ddl_statement('alter table "' || c.owner || '"."' || c.table_name || '" enable constraint ' || c.constraint_name);
  END LOOP;
END;
/