Find All References to View

Question

I've got various databases, and what to be sure I am removing something (a view in this case) that is truly orphaned. Is the the correct SQL to be using:

SELECT r.routine_name, 
       r.routine_definition
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES r
 WHERE r.routine_definition LIKE '%my_view_name%' 

The problem with it is that these references aren't picking up declarations in stored procedures, and I don't know what else.

I found the SO Question I'd remembered, but it's not helping either. This:

SELECT t.*
  FROM SYSCOMMENTS t
 WHERE CHARINDEX('my_view_name', t.text) > 0

...is close. I get the body of the stored procedure that I know is using the view, but I'm having trouble getting the actual procedure name.

Answer 1

You have one option only.

select
    object_name(m.object_id), m.*
from
    sys.sql_modules m
where
    m.definition like N'%my_view_name%'

syscomments and INFORMATION_SCHEMA.routines have nvarchar(4000) columns. So if "myViewName" is used at position 3998, it won't be found. syscomments does have multiple lines but ROUTINES truncates.

Answer 2

Your method is not fully correct. Read this article:

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1294

Your method will not return any result if another view uses this view.

SQL Server 2008 has special view (sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities), here it is not that easy.