How do I list or search all the column names in my database?

Question

I want to search for a string in the names of the columns present in a database.

I’m working on a maintenance project and some of the databases I deal with have more than 150 tables, so I'm looking for a quick way to do this.

What do you recommend?

Answer 1

You can use following query to list all columns or search columns across tables in a database.

USE AdventureWorks 
GO 
SELECT t.name AS table_name,
SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS schema_name,
c.name AS column_name
FROM sys.tables AS t
INNER JOIN sys.columns c ON t.OBJECT_ID = c.OBJECT_ID
WHERE c.name LIKE '%EmployeeID%'
ORDER BY schema_name, table_name; 

You can make use of information_schema views to list all objects in SQL Server 2005 or 2008 databases.

SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables

SELECT * FROM information_schema.columns

http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2008/08/06/sql-server-query-to-find-column-from-all-tables-of-database/

Answer 2

There is also SQL Search - a free tool that integrates with SQL Server Management Studio.

Answer 3

Late one but hopefully useful since both tools are free.

ApexSQL Search – good thing about this tool is that it can also search data, show dependencies between objects and couple other useful things.

SSMS Toolpack – free for all versions except SQL 2012. A lot of great options that are not related only to searching such as snippets, various customizations and more.

Answer 4

This is one that all SQL DBA from old time use.

EXEC sp_help 'your table name';

If only with single line, you don't even need to type EXEC. Just do

sp_help 'your table name'

Answer 5

Here is a way to search all the databases and tell you which database has a table.column:

DECLARE @command varchar(1000)
SET @command =
'USE ? IF EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM sys.tables AS t
INNER JOIN sys.columns c ON t.OBJECT_ID = c.OBJECT_ID
where t.name = ''TableName'' 
and c.name = ''ColumnName''
) select ''?'''
EXEC sp_MSforeachdb @command