spaceused

Spaceused refers to the SQL Server system stored procedure sp_spaceused, a tool for reporting how space is used within a database or a specific table. It is commonly used by database administrators to monitor growth, plan storage, and identify large objects that may affect performance or capacity.

When run without parameters, sp_spaceused returns database-level information, including database_name, database_size, and unallocated_space. When a table or object name is supplied as @objname, the procedure returns object-level statistics such as name, rows, reserved, data, index_size, and unused. The values for size-related columns are typically reported in kilobytes. An optional parameter @updateusage can be set to 'TRUE' to force SQL Server to refresh the space usage data before returning results.

Typical syntax:

- EXEC sp_spaceused;

- EXEC sp_spaceused 'dbo.YourTable';

- EXEC sp_spaceused @updateusage = 'TRUE';

Output interpretation:

- For a database: database_size indicates total allocated space, while unallocated_space shows free space within the database files.

- For a table: rows is the row count; reserved is total space allocated to the object; data is space used by data; index_size is space used by indexes; unused is reserved but not yet used space.

Permissions:

- Executing sp_spaceused generally requires membership in the db_owner fixed database role or equivalent permissions on the database.

Notes:

- The procedure provides quick, practical insights but its numbers are estimates and can change with automated growth, autogrowth events, and index maintenance. For deeper analysis, it is often used alongside dynamic management views and other monitoring tools.