Identifying all dependencies for all entities - tsql

Question

We are upgrading our ERP system and need a method to identify the procedures, views and functions that schema changes may have broken. We host all of our interface logic and supporting entities within a supplemental db within the same instance as the production db. I need a script that will collect all the tables within the new production db along with their fields, data type, and size and compare these results to all the procedures, views and functions within the supplemental db and return those dependencies that are now broken. Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

In 2005, this is going to be pretty tough, since sysdepends / sys.sql_dependencies is thoroughly broken and better dependency features weren't added until SQL Server 2008.
I suppose you could ensure sysdepends was up-to-date by recompiling all of your views, procedures, functions and triggers twice (since on the first pass there still might be deferred name resolution issues etc):
DECLARE #sql NVARCHAR(MAX); SET #sql = N'';
SELECT #sql = #sql + N'
EXEC sp_refreshview N''' + s.name + '.' + v.name + ''';'
FROM sys.views AS v
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s
ON v.[schema_id] = s.[schema_id];
SELECT #sql = #sql + N'
EXEC sp_recompile N''' + s.name + '.'
+ OBJECT_NAME(m.[object_id]) + ''';'
FROM sys.sql_modules AS m
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS o
ON m.[object_id] = o.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s
ON o.[schema_id] = s.[schema_id]
AND o.[type] IN (N'TR', N'FN', N'IF', N'P', N'TF');
PRINT #sql;
--EXEC sp_executesql #sql;
Now you can have a little more faith in sysdepends / sys.sql_dependencies, but it might be even better to generate ALTER commands for them so they are actively recompiled instead of just marked for recompilation. This assumes that you haven't gotten cute with comments before the CREATE <object> command that themselves contain the text create. (Wouldn't a way to generate ALTER commands be nice? Or the ability to CREATE OR REPLACE?)
DECLARE #sql NVARCHAR(MAX); SET #sql = N'';
SELECT #sql = #sql + N'
GO
' + STUFF(definition, CHARINDEX('CREATE', UPPER(definition)), 6, 'ALTER')
FROM sys.sql_modules AS m
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS o
ON m.[object_id] = o.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s
ON o.[schema_id] = s.[schema_id]
AND o.[type] IN (N'TR', N'FN', N'IF', N'P', N'TF');
PRINT #sql;
-- EXEC sp_executesql #sql;
Once you've done that, you can look at sys.sql_dependencies (looks best in results to grid):
SELECT
s1.name + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(d.[object_id]),
' (' + o1.type_desc + ')',
' depends on => ',
s2.name + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(d.referenced_major_id),
' (' + o2.type_desc + ')'
FROM sys.sql_dependencies AS d
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS o1
ON d.[object_id] = o1.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s1
ON o1.[schema_id] = s1.[schema_id]
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS o2
ON d.[referenced_major_id] = o2.[object_id]
INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS s2
ON o2.[schema_id] = s2.[schema_id];
The joins to sys.schemas are necessary throughout because, while you could use OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(), that wasn't available in RTM, and I don't know what build you're on. If you have access to that function then you could simplify some of these joins.
Another idea
You could take a look at 3rd party tools, like Red-Gate's SQL Dependency Tracker. I've only looked at it peripherally and it was a long time ago, so I can't vouch for it, only that the company makes tools that just work.