Question

I want to query a set of tables based on the column name, type, etc. Basically without knowing the name of a table I want to query the database for all tables capable of storing the data into.

I have this query but I’m not sure if it’s very efficient. I was wondering if there is a better way.

 SELECT O.TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS O
    INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS R1
        ON R1.TABLE_NAME = O.TABLE_NAME and R1.COLUMN_NAME = 'Id' and R1.DATA_TYPE = 'uniqueidentifier'
    INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS as R2
        ON R2.TABLE_NAME = O.TABLE_NAME and R2.COLUMN_NAME = 'Message' and R2.DATA_TYPE = 'nvarchar'
    INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS R3
        ON R3.TABLE_NAME = O.TABLE_NAME and R3.COLUMN_NAME = 'EnteredOn' and R3.DATA_TYPE = 'datetime'
    GROUP BY O.TABLE_NAME

This query currently works but I feel there must be a better way. Basically I don’t want other tables showing up that may have a column with the name Id but not the columns Message and EnteredOn.

Here is the CREATE TABLE query for the table.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Log](
    [Id] [uniqueidentifier] ROWGUIDCOL  NOT NULL,
    [Message] [nvarchar](2048) NULL,
    [EnteredOn] [datetime] NOT NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_Log] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [Id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

Answer 1

SELECT table_schema, table_name
FROM   information_schema.columns
WHERE  COLUMN_NAME = 'Id'        AND DATA_TYPE = 'uniqueidentifier'
OR     COLUMN_NAME = 'Message'   AND DATA_TYPE = 'nvarchar'
OR     COLUMN_NAME = 'EnteredOn' AND DATA_TYPE = 'datetime'
GROUP BY table_schema, table_name
HAVING COUNT(COLUMN_NAME) = 3