def tables_to_archive(self, database=None):
        """
        For a given database, return the list of tables that are eligible to
        archiving.
        - Retrieve tables if needed (*, or empty)
        - Check that tables has 'deleted_at' column (deleted_column
        parameter)
        - Exclude tables in excluded_tables
        - Reorder tables depending foreign key
        """
        if database is None:
            logging.warning("Can not call tables_to_archive on None database")
            return []
        if database in self._tables_to_archive:
            return self._tables_to_archive[database]

        database_tables = [
            v[0] for (i, v) in enumerate(self.get_database_tables(database))
        ]
        logging.info("Tables list of database '%s': %s", database,
                     database_tables)
        # Step 1: is to get all the tables we want to archive
        # no table specified or jocker used means we want all tables
        # else we filter against the tables specified
        if self.tables is None or self.tables == '*':
            self._tables_to_archive[database] = database_tables
        else:
            self._tables_to_archive[database] = \
                [t for t in re.split(',|;|\n', self.tables.replace(' ', ''))
                 if t in database_tables]

        # Step 2: verify that all tables have the deleted column 'deleted_at'
        logging.debug("Verifying that tables have the '%s' column",
                      self.deleted_column)
        tables = []
        for table in self._tables_to_archive[database]:
            if not self.table_has_deleted_column(table=table,
                                                 database=database):
                logging.debug(
                    "Table '%s' has no column named '%s',"
                    " ignoring it", table, self.deleted_column)
                continue
            tables.append(table)
        # update self._tables_to_archive with the filtered tables
        self._tables_to_archive[database] = tables

        # Step 3: then exclude the one explicitly given
        excluded_tables_regex = "^(" + "|".join(self.excluded_tables) + ")$"
        logging.debug("Ignoring tables matching '%s'", excluded_tables_regex)
        self._tables_to_archive[database] = [
            t for t in self._tables_to_archive[database]
            if not re.match(excluded_tables_regex, t)
        ]

        # Step 4 for each table retrieve child tables referencing the parent
        # table and order them childs first, parents then
        sorted_tables = self.sort_tables(
            database=database, tables=self._tables_to_archive[database])
        self._tables_to_archive[database] = sorted_tables

        logging.debug(
            "Tables ordered depending foreign key dependencies: "
            "'%s'", self._tables_to_archive[database])
        return self._tables_to_archive[database]