[SOLVED] SQL Server: How to make server check all its check constraints?

SQL Server: How to make server check all its check constraints?

It seems that some scripts generated by Enterprise Manager* (or not, it doesn't matter) created check constraints WITH NOCHECK.

Now when anyone modifies the table, SQL Server is stumbling across failed check constraints, and throwing errors.

Can i make SQL go through all its check constraints, and check them?

Running:

sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? CHECK CONSTRAINT all'

only enables previously disabled check constraints, it doesn't actually check them.

Footnotes

* SQL Server 2000

Solution

DBCC CHECKCONSTRAINTS WITH ALL_CONSTRAINTS won't actually make your constraints trusted. It will report any rows that violate the constraints. To actually make all of your constraints trusted, you can do the following:

DBCC CHECKCONSTRAINTS WITH ALL_CONSTRAINTS --This reports any data that violates constraints.

--This reports all constraints that are not trusted
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(parent_object_id) AS table_name, name, is_disabled  
FROM sys.check_constraints 
WHERE is_not_trusted = 1
UNION ALL
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(parent_object_id) AS table_name, name, is_disabled  
FROM sys.foreign_keys
WHERE is_not_trusted = 1
ORDER BY table_name

In SQL Server 2000 you can find any untrusted constraints with:

--Reports all constraints that are not trusted (SQL 2000)
SELECT name, type, status,
    (status & 2048) AS IsTrusted,
    (status & 256) AS IsEnabled,
    OBJECTPROPERTY(id,'CnstIsNotTrusted') as is_not_trusted,
    OBJECTPROPERTY(id,'CnstIsDisabled') as is_disabled
FROM sysobjects 
WHERE type IN ('C', 'F') --C=Constraint, F=Foreign Key
AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id,'CnstIsNotTrusted') <> 0
AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id,'CnstIsDisabled') = 0

Constraints are then re-reenabled with check:

--This makes all constraints trusted
-- but first anything reported by DBCC CHECKCONSTRAINTS WITH ALL_CONSTRAINTS must be fixed.
exec sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT all'

Note: on the last statement, the WITH CHECK CHECK is not a typo. The "WITH CHECK" will check all table data to ensure there are not violations, and will make the constraint trusted, while the check will make sure the constraints is enabled.