Introduction

What is SQLClean and what does it do?

SQLClean is a product that's sole purpose to find database objects that are not referenced by anything else, whether it be client files like VB, ASP, Delphi etc or other database objects. If database objects are identified as being unreferenced they can be removed saving space in your database, improving performance and eliminating unnecessary "clutter" in your database so you can focus on only those objects that are really used.

SQLClean has two main operations - Check Database for references and Check Files for references. Once you have analyzed the client application and the database itself you will begin to have a good idea of the stare of your database and what objects may be old, obsolete and ready for the trash can.

SQLClean uses text based comparison to look for text strings in client files that match the names of SQL Objects as part of it's method for finding references. It uses this same method to check procedures, views and user defined datatypes. Sure SQL Server has a sysreferences table but it is not always accurate and often misses references. Also, it is unable to look into text strings in stored procedures for references.

SQLClean also leverages the SQL Server object model itself to conduct a dependency analysis of tables to see what defaults, user defined datatypes and even other tables reference the target table.