Friday, November 02, 2007

How to search every table and field in a SQL Server Database

Update: I have corrected the original issue with this script. Please see Search every table and field in a SQL Server Database Updated.

Today I had an issue with Umbraco and a copy of a deleted page appearing in the menu, I'll post how I fix it if I ever do find the answer but while trying to track the issue down I came across a really useful piece of T-SQL from Narayana Vyas Kondreddi (Vyas) that searches each table in a database and then each field in the table. I had to expand it to include integers etc but all credit to him! For reference here's a copy of the code:

Search all tables and fields in a SQL Server Database

CREATE PROC SearchAllTables
(
    @SearchStr nvarchar(100)
)
AS

begin...end

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...end

    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...end    

        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', 'int', 'decimal')
                    AND    QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
            )
    
            IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL

            begin...end

            BEGIN
                INSERT INTO #Results
                EXEC
                (

                    'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + , 3630) + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +

                    'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) 
                    FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +

                    ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
                )
            END

        END    

    END

    SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results
END

How to search every table and field in a SQL Server Database

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Tags: SQL Server