Conflicts in Relationships

I'm looking for a loose algorithm, not code but is there a way in a query building scenario to determine if relationships in a SQL FROM clause are in conflict without actually executing the SQL?

For example, 3 tables may be joined in a triangle and changing the direction of one join may invalidate the other relationships. Many commercial query builing interfaces seem to accomplish this (like MS SQL Server) although I don't need all the extra functionality they provide (like automatic conflict corrections etc...). Thx...

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