View foreign key properties
Applies to:
SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
You can view the foreign key attributes of a relationship in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL.
Permissions
The visibility of the metadata in catalog views is limited to securables that a user either owns, or on which the user was granted some permission. For more information, see Metadata Visibility Configuration.
Use SQL Server Management Studio
Open the Table Designer for the table containing the foreign key you want to view, right-click in the Table Designer, and choose Relationships from the shortcut menu.
In the Foreign Key Relationships dialog box, select the relationship with properties you want to view.
If the foreign key columns are related to a primary key, the primary key columns are identified in Table Designer by a primary key symbol in the row selector.
Use Transact-SQL
In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine.
On the Standard bar, select New Query.
Copy and paste the following example into the query window and select Execute. The example returns all foreign keys and their properties for the table
HumanResources.Employee
in the sample database.USE AdventureWorks2022; GO SELECT f.name AS foreign_key_name, OBJECT_NAME(f.parent_object_id) AS table_name, COL_NAME(fc.parent_object_id, fc.parent_column_id) AS constraint_column_name, OBJECT_NAME(f.referenced_object_id) AS referenced_object, COL_NAME(fc.referenced_object_id, fc.referenced_column_id) AS referenced_column_name, f.is_disabled, f.is_not_trusted, f.delete_referential_action_desc, f.update_referential_action_desc FROM sys.foreign_keys AS f INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc ON f.object_id = fc.constraint_object_id WHERE f.parent_object_id = OBJECT_ID('HumanResources.Employee');
For more information, see sys.foreign_keys and sys.foreign_key_columns.