SQL Server 6.5 Useful Undocumented Stored Procedures

Introduction

In this article, I want to tell you about some useful undocumented
stored procedures shipped with SQL Server 6.5.

sp_fixindex

This stored procedure can be used to fix a corruption in a system table

by recreate the index.

See this link for more information:
“How can I fix a corruption in a system table?”
http://www.windows2000faq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=14051

This is the example:

EXEC sp_fixindex pubs, sysindexes, 2

sp_lock2

As a SQL Server DBA, I often need a reference to information about

locks. Microsoft recommends to use sp_lock system stored procedure

to report locks information. This very useful procedure returns the

information about SQL Server process ID, which lock the data, about

locked database, about locked table_id, about locked page, and about

type of locking.

This is the result set of sp_lock stored procedure:

spid   locktype                            table_id    page        dbname
—— ———————————– ———– ———– —————
12     Sh_intent                           688005482   0           master
12     Ex_extent                           0           336         tempdb

Microsoft provides an enhanced version of the sp_lock system stored
procedure, which returns TableName and Owner also. This is sp_lock2
stored procedure.

This is the example:

EXEC sp_lock2

sp_who2

This stored procedure returns information about current SQL Server 6.5

users and processes as sp_who, but provides more detailed information.

sp_who2 returns CPUTime, DiskIO, LastBatch and ProgramName in addition

to sp_who.

Syntax

sp_who [login_id | ‘spid’]

where
login_id – the user’s login ID. If not specified, the procedure
reports on all active users of SQL Server.
spid – the specific process id.

This example returns information for the ‘sa’ login:

EXEC sp_who2 ‘sa’

sp_tempdbspace

This stored procedure can be used to get the total size and the space

used by the tempdb database. You should execute sp_tempdbspace without

parameters.

This is the example:

EXEC sp_tempdbspace

Here is the result set from my machine:

database_name database_size             spaceused
————- ————————- ——————
tempdb        2.000000                  0.640625

sp_MShelpcolumns

This stored procedure returns the complete schema for a table, including

the length, type, name, and whether a column is computed.

You should specify @tablename parameter to work with sp_MShelpcolumns.

To get the full columns description for the authors table in the

pubs database, run:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MShelpcolumns ‘authors’
GO

sp_MShelpindex

This stored procedure returns information about name, status, fill

factor, index columns names, and about used segment for the given

table.

You should specify @tablename parameter to work with sp_MShelpindex.

To get the indexes description for the authors table in the

pubs database, run:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MShelpindex ‘authors’
GO

sp_MShelptype

This stored procedure returns many useful information about system

data types and about user data types.

You can specify @typename parameter to work with sp_MShelpindex,

or you can run sp_MShelpindex stored procedure without parameters.

To get information about all built-in and user defined data types, run:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MShelptype
GO

sp_MStablespace

This stored procedure returns the number of rows and the space

the table and index use.

You should specify @name parameter to work with sp_MShelpindex.

To determine the space used by the author table in the pubs database, run:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MStablespace ‘authors’
GO

Here is the result set from my machine:

Rows        DataSpaceUsed IndexSpaceUsed
———– ————- ————–
23          2             8

sp_MSindexspace

This stored procedure returns the size in kb, which the indexes in

the particular table use.

Syntax

sp_MSindexspace [@tablename, [@index_name]]

where
@tablename – the table name.
@index_name – the index name.

This is the example:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MSindexspace ‘authors’
GO

Here is the result set from my machine:

Index ID Index Name                     Size (KB)   Comments
——– —————————— ———–
————————–
1        UPKCL_auidind                  4           Size excludes actual
data.
2        aunmind                        4           (None)

sp_MStablerefs

This stored procedure with the @tablename parameter returns all the

dependencies for any table.

To get all dependencies for the titleauthor table in the pubs database, run:

USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_MStablerefs ‘titleauthor’
GO

Here is the result set from my machine:

candidate_table       candidate_key    referenced
——————— —————- ———-
dbo.authors           N/A              1
dbo.titles            N/A              1

sp_MSforeachtable

Sometimes, you need to perform the same actions for all tables in the

database. You can make cursor for this purpose, but you can also use

sp_MSforeachtable stored procedure in this case.

You can use this stored procedure to rebuild all indexes in your
database. Try to schedule it to execute when your server is not
very hard work.

EXEC sp_MSforeachtable @command1=”print ‘?’ DBCC DBREINDEX (‘?’)”

sp_MSkilldb

This stored procedure sets database to suspect and let dbcc dbrepair

to kill it. You should run this sp from the context of the master

database. Use it very carefully.

To kill the pubs database, run:

USE master
GO
EXEC sp_MSkilldb ‘pubs’
GO

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