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I've modified a central table in my database, and sp_depends literally returns hundreds of results, and I'm concerned some of those stored-procedures might not compile anymore after my change.

Checking one single stored procedure is easy (I just rerun the alter script and see whether the operation is successful), but doing that on 100+ procedures is a bit cumbersome.

I know I can use a script like this one to recompile all the objects of my database, but the actual operation will take place next time the stored procedure is executed, not immediately, so that doesn't seem appropriate in my case.

I was also thinking that I could drop all the stored procedures altogether, and resycnhronize my database with my source control system, but that option, although viable, isn't very elegant. Is there a better way of doing this?

I'm using SQLServer 2008 R2 and my database scripts are stored in a VS 2008 database project.

To clarify, I'm not advocating one should solely rely on this approach to test code. Just exactly like in c# you instantaneously detect syntax error in other dependent files as you code (and then use other strategies to test such as unit tests, which is usually several orders of magnitude slower), I think it would make sense to detect SQL dependencies errors in seconds rather than having to run a full functional test which can typically take a few hours to complete.

Brann
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6 Answers6

6

How about you run your your unit, functional, integration and performance tests? If you don't have any tests then is serious time to start considering your database schema as code and treat it as such, including version control and testing. Alex Kuznetsov has an entire book dedicated to this subject: Defensive Database Programming with SQL Server.

Remus Rusanu
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4

You can use Sql Server Data Tools (SSDT). Microsoft Visual Studio allows you to create a Sql Server project. One then imports the database into the project and then build the project. If there are any broken stored procedures or objects, you will get a compile error.

VenVig
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4

It's a work around, but you could generate the CREATE PROCEDURE scripts for the database (right click database -> tasks -> generate scripts), find and replace CREATE PROCEDURE with ALTER PROCEDURE and then parse.

I hope you get a better answer here - I'm interested too! :)

JHFB
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3

You may want to look at this SO question I'm looking for a reliable way to verify T-SQL stored procedures. Anybody got one? which is asking essentially the same thing, with several answers.

To build upon the script Alaa Awad posted... this should show the schema and database of the referenced and referencing objects. If you're using many temp tables via aliases (which sometimes show up when using sys.sql_expression_dependencies), UDTT parameters or other dynamic features you may need to use the functions sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities or sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities instead/also.

SELECT
    DB_NAME() + '.' + OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(sed.referencing_id) + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(sed.referencing_id) AS [referencingObject],
    isnull(sed.referenced_server_name + '.', '') + isnull(sed.referenced_database_name + '.', DB_NAME() + '.') + isnull(sed.referenced_schema_name + '.', OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(sed.referencing_id) + '.') + sed.referenced_entity_name AS [missingReference]
FROM 
    sys.sql_expression_dependencies sed
WHERE 
    sed.is_ambiguous = 0
    AND OBJECT_ID(isnull(sed.referenced_database_name + '.', DB_NAME() + '.') + isnull(sed.referenced_schema_name + '.', OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(sed.referencing_id) + '.') + sed.referenced_entity_name) IS NULL
ORDER BY
    [referencingObject], [missingReference]
Community
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Arkaine55
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2

use the sys.sql_expression_dependencies added in sql server 2008

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[spMaintenance_Find_Broken_Dependencies]

AS
SELECT
    OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id) AS [referencingObject],
    referenced_entity_name AS [missingReference]
FROM 
    sys.sql_expression_dependencies
WHERE 
    is_ambiguous = 0
    AND OBJECT_ID(referenced_entity_name) IS NULL
ORDER BY 
    OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id), referenced_entity_name

GO
Alaa Awad
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0

There is one more way by creating a dacpac and then importing it in SQL server. You can then build the solution and it will show you all the errors that It will encounter with the whole database. Please note that you need to create DACPAC for all the linked databases.

Hope it help.

Deep Panda
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