当你创建新表时，你可以添加一些约束，如UNIQUE，或NOT NULL，也可以告诉SQL当你试图删除行时，它应该做什么动作，它对另一个表有引用

CREATE TABLE company (
                id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
                name VARCHAR(128),
                year DATE);
CREATE TABLE employee (
                id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
                first_name VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
                last_name VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
                company_id INT REFERENCES company(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
                salary INT,
                UNIQUE (first_name, last_name));

所以在这之后，你可以删除任何你需要的行，例如:

DELETE
FROM company
WHERE id = 2;

我拿了Joe Love的答案，用IN操作符和子选择来重写它，而不是=来让函数更快(根据Hubbitus的建议):

create or replace function delete_cascade(p_schema varchar, p_table varchar, p_keys varchar, p_subquery varchar default null, p_foreign_keys varchar[] default array[]::varchar[])
 returns integer as $$
declare

    rx record;
    rd record;
    v_sql varchar;
    v_subquery varchar;
    v_primary_key varchar;
    v_foreign_key varchar;
    v_rows integer;
    recnum integer;

begin

    recnum := 0;
    select ccu.column_name into v_primary_key
        from
        information_schema.table_constraints  tc
        join information_schema.constraint_column_usage AS ccu ON ccu.constraint_name = tc.constraint_name and ccu.constraint_schema=tc.constraint_schema
        and tc.constraint_type='PRIMARY KEY'
        and tc.table_name=p_table
        and tc.table_schema=p_schema;

    for rx in (
        select kcu.table_name as foreign_table_name, 
        kcu.column_name as foreign_column_name, 
        kcu.table_schema foreign_table_schema,
        kcu2.column_name as foreign_table_primary_key
        from information_schema.constraint_column_usage ccu
        join information_schema.table_constraints tc on tc.constraint_name=ccu.constraint_name and tc.constraint_catalog=ccu.constraint_catalog and ccu.constraint_schema=ccu.constraint_schema 
        join information_schema.key_column_usage kcu on kcu.constraint_name=ccu.constraint_name and kcu.constraint_catalog=ccu.constraint_catalog and kcu.constraint_schema=ccu.constraint_schema
        join information_schema.table_constraints tc2 on tc2.table_name=kcu.table_name and tc2.table_schema=kcu.table_schema
        join information_schema.key_column_usage kcu2 on kcu2.constraint_name=tc2.constraint_name and kcu2.constraint_catalog=tc2.constraint_catalog and kcu2.constraint_schema=tc2.constraint_schema
        where ccu.table_name=p_table  and ccu.table_schema=p_schema
        and TC.CONSTRAINT_TYPE='FOREIGN KEY'
        and tc2.constraint_type='PRIMARY KEY'
)
    loop
        v_foreign_key := rx.foreign_table_schema||'.'||rx.foreign_table_name||'.'||rx.foreign_column_name;
        v_subquery := 'select "'||rx.foreign_table_primary_key||'" as key from '||rx.foreign_table_schema||'."'||rx.foreign_table_name||'"
             where "'||rx.foreign_column_name||'"in('||coalesce(p_keys, p_subquery)||') for update';
        if p_foreign_keys @> ARRAY[v_foreign_key] then
            --raise notice 'circular recursion detected';
        else
            p_foreign_keys := array_append(p_foreign_keys, v_foreign_key);
            recnum:= recnum + delete_cascade(rx.foreign_table_schema, rx.foreign_table_name, null, v_subquery, p_foreign_keys);
            p_foreign_keys := array_remove(p_foreign_keys, v_foreign_key);
        end if;
    end loop;

    begin
        if (coalesce(p_keys, p_subquery) <> '') then
            v_sql := 'delete from '||p_schema||'."'||p_table||'" where "'||v_primary_key||'"in('||coalesce(p_keys, p_subquery)||')';
            --raise notice '%',v_sql;
            execute v_sql;
            get diagnostics v_rows = row_count;
            recnum := recnum + v_rows;
        end if;
        exception when others then recnum=0;
    end;

    return recnum;

end;
$$
language PLPGSQL;

该命令将删除所有具有指定表外键的表中的所有数据，以及对这些表具有外键的所有内容，依此类推。要极其谨慎地进行。

如果你真的想DELETE FROM some_table CASCADE;这意味着“删除表some_table中的所有行”，您可以使用TRUNCATE而不是DELETE，并且始终支持CASCADE。但是，如果想使用带有where子句的选择性删除，TRUNCATE不够好。

小心使用——这将删除在some_table上有外键约束的所有表的所有行，以及在这些表上有约束的所有表，等等。

Postgres支持使用TRUNCATE命令进行级联:

TRUNCATE some_table CASCADE;

这是事务性的(即可以回滚)，尽管它没有完全与其他并发事务隔离，并且有其他几个注意事项。详细信息请阅读文档。

如果我理解正确的话，您应该能够通过删除外键约束、添加一个新的外键约束(它将级联)、做您的事情和重新创建限制外键约束来做您想做的事情。

例如:

testing=# create table a (id integer primary key);
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "a_pkey" for table "a"
CREATE TABLE
testing=# create table b (id integer references a);
CREATE TABLE

-- put some data in the table
testing=# insert into a values(1);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into a values(2);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into b values(2);
INSERT 0 1
testing=# insert into b values(1);
INSERT 0 1

-- restricting works
testing=# delete from a where id=1;
ERROR:  update or delete on table "a" violates foreign key constraint "b_id_fkey" on table "b"
DETAIL:  Key (id)=(1) is still referenced from table "b".

-- find the name of the constraint
testing=# \d b;
       Table "public.b"
 Column |  Type   | Modifiers 
--------+---------+-----------
 id     | integer | 
Foreign-key constraints:
    "b_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES a(id)

-- drop the constraint
testing=# alter table b drop constraint b_a_id_fkey;
ALTER TABLE

-- create a cascading one
testing=# alter table b add FOREIGN KEY (id) references a(id) on delete cascade; 
ALTER TABLE

testing=# delete from a where id=1;
DELETE 1
testing=# select * from a;
 id 
----
  2
(1 row)

testing=# select * from b;
 id 
----
  2
(1 row)

-- it works, do your stuff.
-- [stuff]

-- recreate the previous state
testing=# \d b;
       Table "public.b"
 Column |  Type   | Modifiers 
--------+---------+-----------
 id     | integer | 
Foreign-key constraints:
    "b_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES a(id) ON DELETE CASCADE

testing=# alter table b drop constraint b_id_fkey;
ALTER TABLE
testing=# alter table b add FOREIGN KEY (id) references a(id) on delete restrict; 
ALTER TABLE

当然，为了你的心理健康，你应该把这样的东西抽象成一个程序。

带cascade选项的删除只应用于定义了外键的表。如果您执行删除操作，而它告诉您不能删除，因为这会违反外键约束，级联将导致它删除违规行。

如果希望以这种方式删除关联的行，则需要首先定义外键。另外，请记住，除非您显式地指示它开始一个事务，或者更改默认值，否则它将进行自动提交，清理这可能非常耗时。

不。要做到这一点，只需为要级联的表编写delete语句。

DELETE FROM some_child_table WHERE some_fk_field IN (SELECT some_id FROM some_Table);
DELETE FROM some_table;