Finding Object Dependencies in SQL Server

Andy Brownsword looks for references:

When looking to migrate, consolidate or deprovision parts of a SQL solution it’s key to understand the dependencies on the objects inside.

Identifying dependencies can be challenging and I wanted to demonstrate one way to approach this. We’ll start with some objects across a couple of databases:

Read on for a pair of queries that get you on the way. Reference detection is surprisingly difficult in SQL Server, especially if you have cross-server queries. Even cross-database queries may not work the way you expect.

Another option is to use sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities and sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities. I wrote a blog post on the topic a long while back and included some of the caveats around these two DMFs.