Discover Apex custom field references

Question

Is there an easy way to discover where a custom field is referenced in Apex code without attempting to delete it?

E.g. an org with a large code base has objects A, B, and C that all contain a custom field named 'my_custom_field__c'. Is there an easy way to discover references to C.my_custom_field__c?

You can find references to a field (not including inside strings like below) by attempting to delete the field. Does Salesforce expose this functionality some other way?

// Not listed as a reference by Salesforce's delete tool
String s = 'select my_custom_field__c from C'; 
database.query(s);

Answer 1

A really good news!

Salesforce is going to provide out of the box feature to show the references of custom field after winter' 19. https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_forcecom_fields_where.htm

Also, if you want to access it programmatically then you can use Tooling api to by making just a query on MetadataComponentDependency. However, this is pilot and need to ask Salesforce enable it. Here is more detail: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.214.0.api_tooling.meta/api_tooling/tooling_api_objects_metadatacomponentdependency.htm