DBCC Help

Being day 15 of the DBCC Command month at SteveStedman.com, today’s featured DBCC Command is DBCC HELP.

Description:

DBCC HELP is used get more information about a specific DBCC Command.

DBCC HELP Syntax:

dbcc help
(
    { 'dbcc_statement' | @dbcc_statement_var | '?' }
)
    [ WITH NO_INFOMSGS ]

Example:

The following example calls DBCC Help to get help on the help command.

DBCC HELP('Help')

You can use DBCC Help on any of the DBCC Commands here DBCC Help is shown for the DBCC CleanTable command:

But what about Help on the Undocumented DBCC commands?

You can use the trace flag 2588 to turn on help for the undocumented DBCC Commands.

For instance if you call DBCC Help (‘Page’) the DBCC page you get the following error message.

Msg 8987, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
No help available for DBCC statement ‘Page’.

But if you turn on trace flag 2588 you can see the help on the undocumented DBCC commands.

DBCC HELP('Page');

DBCC TRACEON(2588);

DBCC HELP('Page');

Use caution when using any undocumented DBCC command.

Notes:

For more information see TSQL Wiki DBCC help.

DBCC Command month at SteveStedman.com is almost as much fun as playing in the mud.

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