I figured out to write the script myself, here it is (using Dynamic SQL)
I had 185 tables and ~190.000 Description entries, I ended up with ~15.000 Description rows after the execution of this script. (the issue was that a new description was created upon changing an object's description, instead of updating it. After fixing this bug in the code I took on the database). The script took ~3 hours to complete.
USE [YOUR_DATABASE]
PRINT 'BEGIN SCRIPT'
-- put all the tables in your database in a table (where we will perform a cursor on)
SELECT TABLE_NAME INTO ALL_TABLES
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' AND TABLE_CATALOG='YOUR_DATABASE'
-- delete non relevant entities in ALL_TABLES table
delete from ALL_TABLES where TABLE_NAME = 'ALL_TABLES' -- delete the 'all_tables' table
delete from ALL_TABLES where TABLE_NAME = 'DESCRIPTION' -- your to-check table
-- hide rowcounts
set nocount on
-- Variables to use in the cursors
DECLARE
@tableName NVARCHAR(MAX),
@descriptionId INT,
@descriptionInUse BIT;
-- cursor to get all the entities from ALL_TABLES
DECLARE cursor_allTables CURSOR
FOR SELECT
TABLE_NAME
FROM
dbo.ALL_TABLES;
-- cursor to get all the entities out of your to-check table ( mine was Description )
DECLARE cursor_descriptionCleanUp CURSOR
FOR SELECT
Id
FROM
dbo.Description;
-- start iterating over descriptions
OPEN cursor_descriptionCleanUp;
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor_descriptionCleanUp INTO
@descriptionId;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
-- set BIT to check if description is in use
set @descriptionInUse = 0;
-- start iterating over ALL_TABLE rows
OPEN cursor_allTables;
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor_allTables INTO
@tableName;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 AND @descriptionInUse= 0
BEGIN
-- check if this table has a DescriptionId
IF COL_LENGTH('dbo.'+@tableName, 'DescriptionId') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
-- check the table
DECLARE @sql as nvarchar(MAX);
DECLARE @rowCount as int;
SET @sql = 'SELECT DescriptionId FROM '+ @tableName+' where DescriptionId = '+ CAST(@descriptionId as nvarchar(MAX))
EXEC (@sql)
SELECT @rowCount = @@ROWCOUNT;
-- If EXEC (@sql) returned more than 0 rows, this Description row is in use in a table -> mark it as used
IF @rowCount > 0
BEGIN
set @descriptionInUse= 1;
END
END
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor_allTables INTO
@tableName;
END;
CLOSE cursor_allTables;
--if description row is not in use -> delete this row
IF @descriptionInUse = 0
BEGIN
DELETE FROM Description where Id = @descriptionId;
PRINT 'DELETE DESCRIPTION WITH ID: ' + CAST(@descriptionId as nvarchar(MAX))
PRINT'----------------------------------------------'
END
-- fetch next Description Id from Descriptions
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor_descriptionCleanUp INTO
@descriptionId;
END;
CLOSE cursor_descriptionCleanUp;
-- clean up
DEALLOCATE cursor_descriptionCleanUp;
DEALLOCATE cursor_allTables;
drop table ALL_TABLES
-- set nocount back to on
set nocount off
I hope it can help others :-)
