How to execute SQL against all DBs on a Server

I have some standard SQL that I run against multiple databases on a single server to help me diagnose problems:

select 
    so.name,
    so.type,
    MAX(case when sc.text like '%remote%' then '' ELSE 'N' END) AS Relevant,
    @@ServerName as Server,
    DB_Name() as DBName 
from
    sysobjects so with (nolock)
    join syscomments sc with (nolock) on so.id = sc.id
where (sc.text like '%emote%')
group by so.name, so.type
order by so.type, so.name

How can I execute this against all databases on a single server? (besides manually connecting to one at a time and executing)

sp_MSForEachDB

One option is sp_MSForEachDB. It's undocumented but useful nonetheless

DECLARE @command varchar(1000) 
SELECT @command = 
    'USE [?] UPDATE Table1 SET Field1 = ''ninjas'' WHERE Field2 = ''pirates''' 
EXEC sp_MSforeachdb @command

A search of the interwebs has many more examples too

Note: Being an unsupported function (which has some known bugs) you may want to write your own version (thanks @Pradeep)

The SQL example above would need to be restructured as:

DECLARE @findKeySQL nvarchar(2000)
DECLARE @searchKey nvarchar(20)

SET @searchKey = lower('%remote%')

SET @findKeySQL = 'IF ''[?]'' NOT IN (''[master]'', ''[model]'', 
                                     ''[msdb]'', ''[tempdb]'')
        select 
            so.name,
            so.type,
            @@ServerName as Server,
            ''?'' as DBName 
        from
            [?].dbo.sysobjects so with (nolock)
            join [?].sys.all_sql_modules sc with (nolock) on so.id = sc.object_id
        where (lower(sc.definition) like ''' + @searchKey + ''')
        group by so.name, so.type
        order by so.type, so.name'

EXEC sp_MSForEachDB @findKeySQL

NOTES:

• ? is replaced in the query as the

database name, so structure the
query to explicitly define which DB
it is to query against

• modified to use sys.all_sql_modules as holds complete module text (syscomments could split the keyword when reach the spanning over rows)

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#907, answer score: 47