Question

I’m attempting to rename a stored procedure in SQL Server 2008 with sp_rename system sproc. The third parameter is giving me difficulty though and I keep receiving the following error:

Msg 15249, Level 11, State 1, Procedure sp_rename, Line 75
Error: Explicit @objtype 'P' is unrecognized.

As the message indicates I’m passing in a P for the value of the parameter. I call the sproc like this:

EXEC sp_rename @objName = @procName, @newname = @WrappedName, @objtype = 'P';

I double checked the documentation which says this is the value from sys.objects. I ran the following to double check I wasn’t going crazy

select * from sys.objects where name = 'MySprocName'

and indeed the type returned is P.

Does anyone know what I should pass here? I don’t want to leave this empty since I’m creating a generic sproc to among other things rename arbitrary sprocs and if there is a name collision between a sproc and something else I don’t want to have to worry about that.

Answer 1

According to the docs, ‘P’ is not a correct option. You should try ‘OBJECT’ as that seems like the closest thing to what you’re trying to do. But, you should heed this warning …

Changing any part of an object name
can break scripts and stored
procedures. We recommend you do not
use this statement to rename stored
procedures, triggers, user-defined
functions, or views; instead, drop the
object and re-create it with the new
name.

Also (from the same MSDN page):

Renaming a stored procedure, function, view, or trigger will not
change the name of the corresponding object name in the definition
column of the sys.sql_modules catalog view. Therefore, we recommend
that sp_rename not be used to rename these object types. Instead, drop
and re-create the object with its new name.