[mysql] How to find all tables that have foreign keys that reference particular table.column and have values for those foreign keys?

I have a table whose primary key is referenced in several other tables as a foreign key. For example:

  CREATE TABLE `X` (
    `X_id` int NOT NULL auto_increment,
    `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`X_id`)
  )
  CREATE TABLE `Y` (
    `Y_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
    `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    `X_id` int DEFAULT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`Y_id`),
    CONSTRAINT `Y_X` FOREIGN KEY (`X_id`) REFERENCES `X` (`X_id`)
  )
  CREATE TABLE `Z` (
    `Z_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
    `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    `X_id` int DEFAULT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`Z_id`),
    CONSTRAINT `Z_X` FOREIGN KEY (`X_id`) REFERENCES `X` (`X_id`)
  )

Now, I don't know how many tables there are in the database that contain foreign keys into X like tables Y and Z. Is there a SQL query that I can use to return:

1. A list of tables that have foreign keys into X
2. AND which of those tables actually have values in the foreign key

MySQL 5.5 Reference Manual: "InnoDB and FOREIGN KEY Constraints"

SELECT
  ke.REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA parentSchema,
  ke.referenced_table_name parentTable,
  ke.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME parentColumnName,
  ke.TABLE_SCHEMA ChildSchema,
  ke.table_name childTable,
  ke.COLUMN_NAME ChildColumnName
FROM
  information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE ke
WHERE
  ke.referenced_table_name IS NOT NULL
  AND ke.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'ci_id' ## Find Foreign Keys linked to this Primary Key
ORDER BY
  ke.referenced_table_name;

Easiest:
1. Open phpMyAdmin
2. On the left click database name
3. On the top right corner find "Designer" tab

All constraints will be shown there.

I wrote a little bash onliner that you can write to a script to get a friendly output:

mysql_references_to:

mysql -uUSER -pPASS -A DB_NAME -se "USE information_schema; SELECT * FROM KEY_COLUMN_USAGE WHERE REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = '$1' AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'id'\G" | sed 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//' |egrep "\<TABLE_NAME|\<COLUMN_NAME" |sed 's/TABLE_NAME: /./g' |sed 's/COLUMN_NAME: //g' | paste -sd "," -| tr '.' '\n' |sed 's/,$//' |sed 's/,/./'

So the execution: mysql_references_to transaccion (where transaccion is a random table name) gives an output like this:

carrito_transaccion.transaccion_id
comanda_detalle.transaccion_id
comanda_detalle_devolucion.transaccion_positiva_id
comanda_detalle_devolucion.transaccion_negativa_id
comanda_transaccion.transaccion_id
cuenta_operacion.transaccion_id
...

You can find all schema related information in the wisely named information_schema table.

You might want to check the table REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS and KEY_COLUMN_USAGE. The former tells you which tables are referenced by others; the latter will tell you how their fields are related.

This solution will not only display all relations but also the constraint name, which is required in some cases (e.g. drop constraint):

SELECT
    CONCAT(table_name, '.', column_name) AS 'foreign key',
    CONCAT(referenced_table_name, '.', referenced_column_name) AS 'references',
    constraint_name AS 'constraint name'
FROM
    information_schema.key_column_usage
WHERE
    referenced_table_name IS NOT NULL;

If you want to check tables in a specific database, add the following:

AND table_schema = 'database_name';

Listing all foreign keys in a db including description

    SELECT  
    i1.CONSTRAINT_NAME, i1.TABLE_NAME,i1.COLUMN_NAME,
    i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_SCHEMA,i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME, i1.REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME,
    i2.UPDATE_RULE, i2.DELETE_RULE 
    FROM   
    information_schema.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE AS i1  
    INNER JOIN 
    information_schema.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS AS i2 
    ON i1.CONSTRAINT_NAME = i2.CONSTRAINT_NAME 
    WHERE i1.REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME IS NOT NULL  
    AND  i1.TABLE_SCHEMA  ='db_name';

restricting to a specific column in a table table

AND i1.table_name = 'target_tb_name' AND i1.column_name = 'target_col_name'

Here you go:

USE information_schema;
SELECT *
FROM
  KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
  REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = 'X'
  AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'X_id';

If you have multiple databases with similar tables/column names you may also wish to limit your query to a particular database:

SELECT *
FROM
  KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
WHERE
  REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = 'X'
  AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'X_id'
  AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'your_database_name';