Question

In SQL Server 2008, for a view in a given database, I can get the tables in other databases on which the view depends by executing:

select distinct referenced_database_name, referenced_schema_name, referenced_entity_name
from sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities ('dbo.NameOfView', 'OBJECT')
where referenced_database_name is not null

However, sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities is not available in SQL Server 2005. Is there a way to obtain, from the metadata, a list of tables in other databases on which a view depends?

Answer 1

From Aaron Bertrand’s vaguely related blog entry:

The system table sysdepends does not maintain dependency information
for any objects located outside of the local database. This means
that if you want to check the validity of objects with three- or
four-part names in SQL Server 2005 or earlier, you are going to have
to manually parse the definitions of all of your objects.

He goes on to recommend a parser from here – but it’s still a nasty job on 2005 I’m afraid.