Question

I’m working on a project where we are updating client databases from older version to newer versions of the database and the related schema.

I’m looking for a way do the following for all of the tables in the database that our program uses.

If the table doesn't exist
  create table
else
  for each column in the table
    bring the column up to date or create it

I can’t seem to find a way to do this through management studio and I haven’t turned anything up through Google.

Something that would either give me this option in SQL Management Studio or a program that would generate the scripts for me would be good.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can write a procedure to generate code for this schenario by using the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views. Its Free 🙂 !

DECLARE @Table_of_Tables TABLE
(
   Id int,
   Table_name varchar(50)
)
DECLARE @tablename varchar(50)
DECLARE @iterator int
DECLARE @count int
DECLARE SQL nvarchar(max)

SET @SQL = ''

INSERT INTO @Table_of_Tables 
SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

SELECT @count = COUNT(1) FROM @Table_of_Tables 
SET @iterator = 1

WHILE(@iterator  <= @Count)
BEGIN
    SET @SQL = @SQL + ' IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.sysobjects where type = ''u'' and name = ''+ @Table_of_Tables +'''      SET @SQL = @SQL + ' BEGIN '
    SET @SQL = @SQL + <CreateTableScriptHere> 
    SET @SQL = @SQL + ' END '
    SET @SQL = @SQL + ' ELSE '
    SET @SQL = @SQL + ' BEGIN '
    -- Similar Loop to generate code for all the columns in this table
    -- SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM INFROMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME = @tablename
    SET @SQL = @SQL + ' END '

    SET @iterator = @iterator + 1
END