MySQL DROP all tables, ignoring foreign keys

Question

Is there a nice easy way to drop all tables from a MySQL database, ignoring any foreign key constraints that may be in there?

Answer 1

I use the following with a MSSQL server:

if (DB_NAME() = 'YOUR_DATABASE') 
begin
    while(exists(select 1 from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS where CONSTRAINT_TYPE='FOREIGN KEY'))
    begin
         declare @sql nvarchar(2000)
         SELECT TOP 1 @sql=('ALTER TABLE ' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '.[' + TABLE_NAME + '] DROP CONSTRAINT [' + CONSTRAINT_NAME + ']')
         FROM information_schema.table_constraints
         WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'FOREIGN KEY'
         exec (@sql)
         PRINT @sql
    end

    while(exists(select 1 from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES))
    begin
         declare @sql2 nvarchar(2000)
         SELECT TOP 1 @sql2=('DROP TABLE ' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '.[' + TABLE_NAME + ']')
         FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
        exec (@sql2)
        PRINT @sql2
    end
end
else
    print('Only run this script on the development server!!!!')

Replace YOUR_DATABASE with the name of your database or remove the entire IF statement (I like the added safety).