Yes, this is true; but in this case it is overwritten as soon as the next statement in the sp_depends sproc is executed. Therefore by the time my sproc receives the output the @@Error is 0 again. I was thinking maybe there was some undocumented system function(s) that handles scope much like the identity functions, Scope_Identity and @@Ident_current. You can check this for yourself by comparing the results of sp_depends on an object that has dependencies and one that doesn't, set a local var to return the returnValue and also try to grab the @@Error and you will see in all cases the returnValue is 0 and @@Error is 0. For now I am trapping it and using table count that seems to be the only way to figure it out. Thanks. Pamela Reinskou VersusLaw Inc.