How to understand a new database with no documentation or help from vendor?

Hi Dbdrtso,

According to your description, you want to get all the databsae objects for the new databse, right?

In this case, you can use the script below to get the tables and columns.

select a.name [Table],b.name [Attribute],c.name [DataType],b.isnullable [Allow Nulls?],CASE WHEN 
d.name is null THEN 0 ELSE 1 END [PKey?],
CASE WHEN e.parent_object_id is null THEN 0 ELSE 1 END [FKey?],CASE WHEN e.parent_object_id 
is null THEN '-' ELSE g.name  END [Ref Table],
CASE WHEN h.value is null THEN '-' ELSE h.value END [Description]
from sysobjects as a
join syscolumns as b on a.id = b.id
join systypes as c on b.xtype = c.xtype 
left join (SELECT  so.id,sc.colid,sc.name 
      FROM    syscolumns sc
      JOIN sysobjects so ON so.id = sc.id
      JOIN sysindexkeys si ON so.id = si.id 
                    and sc.colid = si.colid
      WHERE si.indid = 1) d on a.id = d.id and b.colid = d.colid
left join sys.foreign_key_columns as e on a.id = e.parent_object_id and b.colid = e.parent_column_id    
left join sys.objects as g on e.referenced_object_id = g.object_id  
left join sys.extended_properties as h on a.id = h.major_id and b.colid = h.minor_id
where a.type = 'U' order by a.name

And use the script to get all Stored Procedure, Function, View and Trigger

SELECT    O.Name as ProcName 
        ,M.Definition as CreateScript 
        ,O.Create_Date 
        ,O.Modify_Date 
FROM sys.sql_modules as M INNER JOIN sys.objects as O 
ON M.object_id = O.object_id 
WHERE O.type = 'P'
--Procedure
--WHERE O.type = 'V' View
--WHERE O.type = 'FN' Function

Regards,

---

Charlie Liao

TechNet Community Support