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Best way to quickly discern table relationships?

  • May 24, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    #1492877

    Sean Lange (5/24/2012)

    If Jeff had worked with me at most of the places I have been, pigs would be extinct.

    Heh... ohh lordy. "Have pork. Will travel." 😀

    --Jeff Moden

    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • May 24, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    #1492918

    dan-572483 (5/23/2012)

    Have you tried the Visio Database Reverse Engineer feature? It creates a diagram and tries to show relationships- probably not all correct in your case, but it's a start.

    Do you have the GUI of the application for which it was created? Browsing the application while running a SQL trace will help you put the lines in the right places.

    The problem with the Visio reverse engineering tool, and most of the other free tools for SQL Server is that the only kind of Relation that they can automatically recognize and diagram are those implemented in Foreign Keys. And unfortunately, the vast majority of SQL Server based application databases that I have worked on (both products and internally developed apps) make *very* sparing use of FKs.

    That said, I haven't looked at Paul's suggestion yet, so there's still hope ... 🙂

    [font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
    Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc.     [/font]    [font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

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