Question

In SQL Server 2008, I’m trying to quickly get a row count on a table for diagnostic purposes in a stored procedure. Within the stored proc I’m using the following SQL to get a count without doing a table scan:

--Get row count using sp_spaceused
DECLARE @rowCount AS INT
DECLARE @spaceUsed TABLE(
    [Name] varchar(64), 
    [Rows] INT,
    [Reserved] VARCHAR(50),
    [Data] VARCHAR(50),
    [Index_Size] VARCHAR(50),
    [Unused] VARCHAR(50)
)
INSERT INTO @spaceUsed EXEC sp_spaceused 'MyTable'
SET @rowCount = (SELECT TOP 1 [Rows] FROM @spaceUsed)

This SQL works fine when I execute the stored procedure from SQL Management Studio using the Administrator account. However, when I try to execute the stored procedure from code (which uses a different login) sp_spaceused fails with the message “The object ‘MyTable’ does not exist in database ‘MyDatabase’ or is invalid for this operation.”

Is there a way to make this work for a non-adminstrator login? Is there something else I’m missing about running the procedure in Management Studio vs. from code?

Answer 1

You need to make sure that the calling user has permissions to the table which you’re checking. Read permissions should be sufficient for what you’re doing, but I haven’t tested that.

As others have said, you can also use EXECUTE AS if the data in the table is of a secure nature and you don’t want the user to have even read access to it.