Question

Is there a way to search for one value (in my case it is a UID of the type char(64)) inside any column of any table inside one MS SQL Server database?

I’m sitting in front of a huge database without any idea how the tables had to be linked together. To find that out I’d like to list all tables and there columns that contain a certain value in any row. Is that possible?

One way could be to just dump the entire database into a text file and than use any text-editor to search for the value – but this would be pure pain if the database is too huge.

Answer 1

How to search all columns of all tables in a database for a keyword?

http://vyaskn.tripod.com/search_all_columns_in_all_tables.htm

EDIT: Here’s the actual T-SQL, in case of link rot:

CREATE PROC SearchAllTables ( @SearchStr nvarchar(100) ) AS BEGIN  -- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved. -- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string -- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi -- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com -- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 -- Date modified: 28th July 2002 22:50 GMT   CREATE TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))  SET NOCOUNT ON  DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110) SET  @TableName = '' SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')  WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL BEGIN     SET @ColumnName = ''     SET @TableName =      (         SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))         FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES         WHERE       TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'             AND QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName             AND OBJECTPROPERTY(                     OBJECT_ID(                         QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)                          ), 'IsMSShipped'                            ) = 0     )      WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL)     BEGIN         SET @ColumnName =         (             SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))             FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS             WHERE       TABLE_SCHEMA    = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)                 AND TABLE_NAME  = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)                 AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')                 AND QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName         )          IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL         BEGIN             INSERT INTO #Results             EXEC             (                 'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630)                  FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +                 ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2             )         END     END  END  SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results  END