Question

When I’m looking round a SQL Server database I often want to interactively retrieve a simple list of column names for a database table (no data type information etc., just the names) using sqlcmd.

I can do this:

EXEC sp_columns @table_name = 'tablename'

which gives me much more than I want and wraps in a command prompt to the extent that it is close to unintelligible, or I can do this:

SELECT col.name 
FROM sysobjects obj 
INNER JOIN syscolumns col
ON obj.id = col.id where obj.name = 'tablename'

which gives me what I want but is a bit verbose.

I’d like to be able to do something like this:

SELECT column_name
FROM (EXEC sp_columns @table_name = 'tablename')

but that doesn’t work (see, for example, this question).

Is there a more succinct way to do this (i.e. one that is easier to type at the command line and therefore less error prone)?

Answer 1

Look at the ANSI-defined INFORMATION_SCHEMA views. Try SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS for starters and go on from there.

Your example would require this SQL:

SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = 'tablename'