Re: Dependencies in Enterprise Manager

From: Dan Guzman (guzmanda_at_nospam-online.sbcglobal.net)
Date: 11/06/04 

Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 07:30:09 -0600

I agree that SQL Server dependency management leaves much to be desired but
a sanity check is in order here. If you rename an executable (e.g.
MyApp.exe to MyNewApp.exe), do you expect you source code to automagically
get updated to reflect the change? If you rename a function or variable
name in your application program, do you expect existing references to be
changed as well?

IMO, SQL Server database objects should be treated similarly to other
application code. We keep DDL under source control so that these scripts
can be used as the master copy to promote database changes. 

-- 
Hope this helps.
Dan Guzman
SQL Server MVP
"DW" <None> wrote in message news:%23AOmYr4wEHA.4040@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>I have seen several cautions like "don't depend on 'Display
> Dependencies' in Enterprise Manager; it's not reliable".
>
> I have seen evidence of this in SQL 2000 -- if you rename a view, the
> associated 'text' field in the syscomments table is not changed to
> reflect the rename.  Which makes the text field in syscomments pretty
> useless.  And I think there are other causes that make 'Display
> Dependencies' can give the wrong answers, but I don't remember them all.
>
> All of this seems to be a HUGE hole in Enterprise Manager.  SQL is a
> database; why can't it keep actual track of dependencies?
>
> And why can't I rename a table, or a view, or a field in a table, and
> have all the dependent views automatically udpated to reflect the
> rename?  It seems that an enterprise-class database and its tools ought
> to be able to do this with no sweat.
>
> Is sp-depends any different than the dependencies in Enterprise Manager,
> or are they the same thing?
>
> Is there really no reliable way to find out, for example, what views or
> stored procedures in my database use field X from table Y?
>
> Thanks.
>
> David Walker

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