SQL Server: Self-reference FK, trigger instead of ON DELETE CASCADE

Question

I need to perform an ON DELETE CASCADE on my table named CATEGORY, which has the following columls CAT_ID (BIGINT) NAME (VARCHAR) PARENT_CAT_ID (BIGINT)

PARENT_CAT_I

Answer 1

The FOR DELETE trigger is raised after the original DELETE has been executed. To delete recursively, you need to write an INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger.

The algorithm is like this:

• Insert the PKs from deleted into a temp table

• Find detail records of records in temp table

• Loop until no more records are found

DELETE records in the table by joining with temp table.

I described recursive deletion in my blog.

Update

I guess you just need to drop that ON DELETE CASCADE flag from your recursive foreign key in Categories. The CASCADE flag on the foreign key from CAT_SCH should not matter.