The computer retrieves a list of the data elements contained in a database. The computer performs a static and dynamic analysis on the list to determine which data elements have been active in a static or dynamic Structured Query Language (SQL) statement, then removes active data elements from the list. The computer performs a dependency test to determine which data elements on the list are depended on by data objects not on the list and removes those data elements which are depended on. The computer analyzes application code to extract SQL statements and determine whether data elements on the list are active in application code SQL. Any data elements on the list which are active in application code SQL are removed from the list and the remaining data elements on the list are sorted in descending order based on size.