SQL Server Team-based Development - Red Gate Software

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Chapter 8: Exploring your Database Schema
some permission on a table then, by implication, that user can also view the metadata
for all the table's subcomponents, such as columns, indexes, check constraints, and
triggers. If the user requests information that he has no permission to see, then a NULL
is returned.
You can mix the Information Schema views with the catalog views and their associated
metadata functions. To return the entire definition of a routine, for example, you can
use the metadata function, Object_Definition(), which is not part of the
Information_Schema standard, as shown in Listing 8-1.
SELECT full_name ,
OBJECT_DEFINITION(OBJECT_ID(full_name))
FROM ( SELECT Routine_SCHEMA + '.' + routine_name AS Full_Name
FROM information_schema.routines
) routines
WHERE full_name LIKE 'MyObjectName'
Listing 8-1: Retrieving object definitions from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views.
This query won't return information about "non-standard" objects such as triggers, but it
will also miss views (although you can get this information from information_schema.
views). As such, there seems little point in such a query, as the one shown in Listing 8-2,
using the catalog views, will give the same information and also provides information
about triggers, views, and so on.
--find the actual code for a particular stored procedure, view, function etc.
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(object_ID), definition
FROM sys.sql_modules
WHERE OBJECT_NAME(object_ID) = 'MyObjectName'
Listing 8-2: Retrieving object definitions from the system catalog views.