Product Review: SQL Search – Searching for SQL Text Within SQL Server DB Objects

Some time ago Red Gate released SQL Search, a SSMS add-in that allows the user to search for fragments of text within database objects in a SQL Server instance! Yes, I know, this is cool! 🙂

There are many scenarios where the tool can come in handy. For example, imagine trying to perform a modification in a table and there is a view using the “WITH SCHEMABINDING” option which binds the view to the schema of the specific table. So, in order to be able to perform the table schema modification you will first need to either modify or delete the view. So what can you do for finding any views, functions or any other objects that reference the table? You can search for such database objects referencing the table name in their definition.

Below I am presenting some screenshots illustrating the usage of the tool.

After installing SQL Search and starting SQL Server Management Studio, you will notice that there is a new add-in added:

When clicking on the SQL Search add-in you are presented with the following screen:

The following screenshot explains the main controls of the tool:

For this example, I typed the text “customer” and searched for all the database objects, in all the databases within the instance that reference it. To this end I was presented with the following screen:

Then, by double-clicking on the item, or by clicking on the “Select object in Object Explorer” hyperlink, you are able to access the object via SSMS Object Explorer:

Another important thing is that the tool is free and you can download it from here 🙂

I hope you found this product review useful!