Find the referenced table name using table, field and schema name

Question

I have a requirement where I need to find the referenced table name (Primary key table name) by a particular field in a table (Foreign key table) using this field name, table name (where this field resides) and the schema name (where the table and thereby the field resides)

For example:

Schema1.TableA
  Id (Integer, PK)  
  Name varchar


Schema2.TableB
  Id (integer, PK)  
  A_Id (integer, FK referencing TableA.Id)  
  Name varchar

I need to pass A_Id, TableB and Schema2 to a function and get Schema1.TableA as result.

I am using Postgres 8.3.

I think you need to [query the information_schema.key_column_usage table](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/infoschema-key-column-usage.html). That schema isn't in your path, so start with something like `select * from information_schema.key_column_usage;`. — Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall', Mar 25 '13 at 15:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

If you don't need this to be portable to another RDBMS it is much faster and simpler to use the catalog tables in pg_catalog instead of the standard information schema:

SELECT c.confrelid::regclass::text AS referenced_table
     , c.conname AS fk_name
     , pg_get_constraintdef(c.oid) AS fk_definition
FROM   pg_attribute a 
JOIN   pg_constraint c ON (c.conrelid, c.conkey[1]) = (a.attrelid, a.attnum)
WHERE  a.attrelid = '"Schema2"."TableB"'::regclass   -- table name
AND    a.attname  = 'A_Id'                           -- column name  
AND    c.contype  = 'f'
ORDER  BY conrelid::regclass::text, contype DESC;

Returns:

 referenced_table | fk_name  |  fk_definition
------------------+-------------------------+----------------------------------------------
 Schema1.TableA   | b1_fkey  | FOREIGN KEY ("B_id") REFERENCES "Schema1"."TableA"("A_id")

Notes

The additional two columns are for orientation only. According to your Q, you only need the first column.
This returns all referenced tables by all foreign keys involving the given column name - including FK constraints on multiple columns.
The name is automatically schema-qualified or not according to the visibility set by the current search_path. The name is also escaped where needed (illegal or upper case characters, reserved words, ...) automatically, too.

Check out details of pg_constraint and pg_attribute in the manual. And more about object identifier types as well.

Find the referenced table name using table, field and schema name

1 Answers1

Notes

Linked