What is a statutory constraint?

How can I solve the "1701, 'Cannot truncate a table referenced in a foreign key constraint" issue in MySQL when trying to truncate a table?

• I have two tables: CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `submissions` ( `submission_id` INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT) CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `assessments` ( `assessment_id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT , `submission_id` INT NOT NULL , CONSTRAINT `submission` FOREIGN KEY (`submission_id` ) REFERENCES `submissions` (`submission_id` ) ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE NO ACTION) When I try to execute TRUNCATE submissions;, I get the error: "_mysql_exceptions.OperationalError: (1701, 'Cannot truncate a table referenced in a foreign key constraint (`assessments`, CONSTRAINT `submission` FOREIGN KEY (`submission_id`) REFERENCES `submissions` (`submission_id`))')" How can I circumvent it?

• Answer:

  You can disable the foreign key check before truncating the table: SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; TRUNCATE submissions; SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1; Beware that this might break the integrity of the database.