Search Inside a SQL Server Stored Procedure Definition

I found myself in a strange situation recently. A couple of months ago, I had written a couple of Stored Procedure in SQL Server 2005/2008. A week ago, when the time came to use it, I could barely remember its name or any of the columns used in the SP. What I did remember was the name of a variable I had declared inside the SP. If you fall in a similar situation and want to search inside a SQL Server Stored Procedure, here’s how to do it.

I am using the AdventureWorks database as an example. I will search for all stored procedures that have @ManagerID declared as a parameter in their definition. Here’s the query:

SELECT obj.name AS SP_NAME,
    sqlmod.definition AS SP_DEFINITION
FROM sys.sql_modules AS sqlmod
INNER JOIN sys.objects AS obj
ON sqlmod.object_id = obj.object_id
WHERE sqlmod.definition LIKE '%@ManagerID%'
    and type = 'P'

OUTPUT

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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