Introduction to sys.dm SQL Referencing Entities in SQL Server

In the SQL Server, it is very important to understand the relationship between the database entities for effective database management. The sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities is a dynamic management function that helps the users to fetch out these relationships between the database entities. This function allows database administrators to identify dependencies among the various objects in the SQL server which is crucial for debugging, and performance testing and helps to analyze the schema changes within the database. Before we move forward in this article it is important to understand the difference between the referenced entities and referencing entities in the SQL server

A dependency is created between two objects when one object appears by name inside a SQL statement stored in another object. The object which appears inside the SQL expression is known as the Referenced Entity and the object which has the SQL expression is known as the Referencing Entity.

For example, if we are creating a view Vw_Students for a table called Student then the view will be the referencing entity and the table will be the Referenced entity because the view that we have created refers to the table Student.

Syntax:

sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities (  
    ' schema_name.referenced_entity_name ' , ' <referenced_class> ' )  
  
<referenced_class> ::=  
{  
    OBJECT  
  | TYPE  
  | XML_SCHEMA_COLLECTION  
  | PARTITION_FUNCTION  
}

The sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities function mainly consists of 3 parameters:

• schema_name.referenced_entity_name Is the name of the referenced entity.
• schema_name is required except when the referenced class is PARTITION_FUNCTION.
• <referenced class> is the class of the referenced entity. Only one class can be specified per statement.

Understanding the relationship between different object entities is very crucial in complex databases because changes in any object can affect the overall database. The SQL Server provides a very effective dynamic management function known as sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities which helps the user to track the relationship between various entities in the database.

In this article, we are going to explore sys dm SQL referencing entities in SQL Server. We will learn how we can use various referencing entities in SQL servers to understand the relationship between various objects. We will learn about referencing entities, referenced entities, and how they are related. We will explore various examples for better understanding and learn step by step how we can use sys dm SQL referencing entities in SQL Server.