Find broken objects in SQL Server

Question

Is there a tool that will find all objects in SQL Server (functions, procs, views) that cannot possibly work because they refer to objects that don\'t exist?

Answer 1

You may be interested in checking out the following articles:

• Michael J. Swart: Find Missing SQL Dependencies
• eggheadcafe.com: Find broken stuff

You can test Michael J. Swart's solution as follows:

CREATE PROCEDURE proc_bad AS
    SELECT col FROM nonexisting_table
GO

SELECT
    OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id) AS [this sproc or VIEW...],
    referenced_entity_name AS [... depends ON this missing entity name]
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;

Which returns:

+------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| this sproc or VIEW...  |  ... depends ON this missing entity name |
|------------------------+------------------------------------------|
| proc_bad               |  nonexisting_table                       |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------+

Answer 2

The two previous solutions here are interesting, but both failed on my test databases.

The original Michael J Swart script produced a huge number of false positives for me, far too many to wade through. Rick V.'s solution here was better - the only false positives it gave were for cross-database references.

There's a comment on the Michael J Swart article by RaduSun which gives a solution that I can't yet break though! This is it, tweaked mildly for readability and my purposes, but credit to RaduSun for the logic.

SELECT 
    QuoteName(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(referencing_id)) + '.' 
        + QuoteName(OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id)) AS ProblemObject,
    o.type_desc,
    ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_server_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_database_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_schema_name) + '.', '')
    + QuoteName(referenced_entity_name) AS MissingReferencedObject
FROM
    sys.sql_expression_dependencies sed
        LEFT JOIN sys.objects o
            ON sed.referencing_id=o.object_id
WHERE
    (is_ambiguous = 0)
    AND (OBJECT_ID(ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_server_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_database_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_schema_name) + '.', '')
    + QuoteName(referenced_entity_name)) IS NULL)
ORDER BY
    ProblemObject,
    MissingReferencedObject

Answer 3

 create table #BrokenObjects (Name nvarchar(500), Error nvarchar(max))
 select * into #objects from(
 select name from sys.views
 union select name from sys.procedures
 union select name from sys.tables
 )x
 declare @name nvarchar(500),@err nvarchar(max)
 while exists(select top 1 * from #objects)
 begin
 select top 1 @name = name from #objects
 begin try
 EXEC sys.sp_refreshsqlmodule @name
 end try
 begin catch
 select @err = ERROR_MESSAGE()
 insert into #BrokenObjects (name,error) values (@name,@err)
 end catch
 delete from #objects
 where name = @name
 end
 drop table #objects
 select * from #BrokenObjects
 where Error not like 'Could not find object % or you do not have permission.'

 drop table #BrokenObjects

Answer 4

/*
modified version of script from http://michaeljswart.com/2009/12/find-missing-sql-dependencies/
Added columns for object types & generated refresh module command...
filter out user-define types: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2330521/find-broken-objects-in-sql-server

*/

SELECT TOP (100) PERCENT
    QuoteName(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(referencing_id)) + '.' + QuoteName(OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id)) AS [this Object...],
        o.type_desc,
    ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_server_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_database_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_schema_name) + '.', '')
    + QuoteName(referenced_entity_name) AS [... depends ON this missing entity name]
    ,sed.referenced_class_desc
    ,case when o.type_desc in( 'SQL_STORED_PROCEDURE' ,'SQL_SCALAR_FUNCTION' ,'SQL_TRIGGER' ,'VIEW')
          then 'EXEC sys.sp_refreshsqlmodule ''' + QuoteName(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(referencing_id)) + '.' + QuoteName(OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id)) + ''';'
          else null
       end as [Refresh SQL Module command]
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies as sed
LEFT JOIN sys.objects o
            ON sed.referencing_id=o.object_id
WHERE (is_ambiguous = 0)
AND (OBJECT_ID(ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_server_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_database_name) + '.', '')
    + ISNULL(QuoteName(referenced_schema_name) + '.', '')
    + QuoteName(referenced_entity_name)) IS NULL)
AND NOT EXISTS
   (SELECT * 
    FROM sys.types 
    WHERE types.name = referenced_entity_name 
    AND types.schema_id = ISNULL(SCHEMA_ID(referenced_schema_name), SCHEMA_ID('dbo'))
   )
ORDER BY [this Object...],
[... depends ON this missing entity name]

Answer 5

I wrote a script some years ago that will find Stored Procedures that won't compile by pulling the text of the proc and attempting to recompile it with a try/catch block. It's pretty simple and effective at finding at least procedures that can be dropped. You could easily expand it for views.

Note that you should only run this against a DEV or TEST environment since it's actually attempting to recompile the procedures.

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @ProcedureName VARCHAR(2048)
DECLARE @ProcedureBody VARCHAR(MAX)

DECLARE @RoutineName varchar(500)

DECLARE procCursor CURSOR STATIC FORWARD_ONLY READ_ONLY
 FOR
 SELECT
 --TOP 1
 SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + NAME AS ProcedureName,
 OBJECT_DEFINITION(o.[object_id]) AS ProcedureBody
 FROM sys.objects AS o
 WHERE o.[type] = 'P'
 ORDER BY o.[name]

OPEN procCursor
FETCH NEXT FROM procCursor INTO @ProcedureName, @ProcedureBody

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
 -- Might have to play with this logic if you don't have discipline in your create statements
 SET @ProcedureBody = REPLACE(@ProcedureBody, 'CREATE PROCEDURE', 'ALTER PROCEDURE')

 BEGIN TRY
   EXECUTE(@ProcedureBody)
   PRINT @ProcedureName + ' -- Succeeded'
 END TRY
 BEGIN CATCH
   PRINT @ProcedureName + ' -- Failed: ' + ERROR_MESSAGE()
 END CATCH

 FETCH NEXT FROM procCursor INTO @ProcedureName, @ProcedureBody
END

CLOSE procCursor
DEALLOCATE procCursor

https://brettwgreen.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/find-stored-procedures-that-wont-compile/