How can I get column names from a table in SQL Server?

Question

I want to query the name of all columns of a table. I found how to do this in:

• Oracle
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL

But I also need to know: how can this be done in Microsoft SQL Server (2008 in my case)?

Answer 1

You can obtain this information and much, much more by querying the Information Schema views.

This sample query:

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Customers'

Can be made over all these DB objects:

• CHECK_CONSTRAINTS
• COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE
• COLUMN_PRIVILEGES
• COLUMNS
• CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE
• CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE
• DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS
• DOMAINS
• KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
• PARAMETERS
• REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS
• ROUTINES
• ROUTINE_COLUMNS
• SCHEMATA
• TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
• TABLE_PRIVILEGES
• TABLES
• VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE
• VIEW_TABLE_USAGE
• VIEWS

Answer 2

You can use the stored procedure sp_columns which would return information pertaining to all columns for a given table. More info can be found here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176077.aspx

You can also do it by a SQL query. Some thing like this should help:

SELECT * FROM sys.columns WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('dbo.yourTableName') 

Or a variation would be:

SELECT   o.Name, c.Name
FROM     sys.columns c 
         JOIN sys.objects o ON o.object_id = c.object_id 
WHERE    o.type = 'U' 
ORDER BY o.Name, c.Name

This gets all columns from all tables, ordered by table name and then on column name.

Answer 3

select *
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where TABLE_NAME='tableName'

This is better than getting from sys.columns because it shows DATA_TYPE directly.

Answer 4

You can use sp_help in SQL Server 2008.

sp_help <table_name>;

Keyboard shortcut for the above command: select table name (i.e highlight it) and press ALT+F1.

Answer 5

You can write this query to get column name and all details without using INFORMATION_SCHEMA in MySql :

SHOW COLUMNS FROM database_Name.table_name;

Answer 6

By using this query you get the answer:

select Column_name 
from Information_schema.columns 
where Table_name like 'table name'

Answer 7

SELECT name
FROM sys.columns
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('TABLE_NAME')

TABLE_NAME is your table

Answer 8

--This is another variation used to document a large database for conversion (Edited to --remove static columns)

SELECT o.Name                   as Table_Name
     , c.Name                   as Field_Name
     , t.Name                   as Data_Type
     , t.length                 as Length_Size
     , t.prec                   as Precision_
FROM syscolumns c 
     INNER JOIN sysobjects o ON o.id = c.id
     LEFT JOIN  systypes t on t.xtype = c.xtype  
WHERE o.type = 'U' 
ORDER BY o.Name, c.Name

--In the left join, c.type is replaced by c.xtype to get varchar types

Answer 9

You can try this.This gives all the column names with their respective data types.

desc <TABLE NAME> ;

Answer 10

SELECT column_name, data_type, character_maximum_length, table_name,ordinal_position, is_nullable 
FROM information_schema.COLUMNS WHERE table_name LIKE 'YOUR_TABLE_NAME'
ORDER BY ordinal_position

Answer 11

Just run this command

EXEC sp_columns 'Your Table Name'

Answer 12

Summarizing the Answers

I can see many different answers and ways to do this but there is the rub in this and that is the objective.

Yes, the objective. If you want to only know the column names you can use

SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE 1=0
or
SELECT TOP 0 * FROM my_table

But if you want to use those columns somewhere or simply say manipulate them then the quick queries above are not going to be of any use. You need to use

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Customers'

one more way to know some specific columns where we are in need of some similar columns

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE COLUMN_NAME like N'%[ColumnName]%' and TABLE_NAME = N'[TableName]'

Answer 13

You can try using :-

USE db_name;
DESCRIBE table_name;

it'll give you column names with the type.

Answer 14

In SQL Server, you can select COLUMN_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS.

Here is the code:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='YourTableName'

Answer 15

This SO question is missing the following approach :

-- List down all columns of table 'Logging'
select * from sys.all_columns where object_id = OBJECT_ID('Logging')

Answer 16

It will check whether the given the table is Base Table.

SELECT 
    T.TABLE_NAME AS 'TABLE NAME',
    C.COLUMN_NAME AS 'COLUMN NAME'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES T
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C ON T.TABLE_NAME=C.TABLE_NAME
    WHERE   T.TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE'
            AND T.TABLE_NAME LIKE 'Your Table Name'

Answer 17

you can use this query

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE COLUMN_NAME like N'%[ColumnName]%' and TABLE_NAME = N'[TableName]'

Answer 18

SELECT c.Name 
FROM sys.columns c
JOIN sys.objects o ON o.object_id = c.object_id
WHERE o.object_id = OBJECT_ID('TABLE_NAME')
ORDER BY c.Name

Answer 19

One other option which is arguably more intuitive is:

SELECT [name] 
FROM sys.columns 
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('[yourSchemaType].[yourTableName]') 

This gives you all your column names in a single column. If you care about other metadata, you can change edit the SELECT STATEMENT TO SELECT *.

Answer 20

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE COLUMN_NAME like N'%[ColumnName]%' and TABLE_NAME = N'[TableName]'

OR If you want to view the column names, you can select the table and press Alt+F1.

Answer 21

Simple and doesn't require sys variables:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM suppliers;

Answer 22

SELECT TOP (0) [toID]
      ,[sourceID]
      ,[name]
      ,[address]
  FROM [ReportDatabase].[Ticket].[To]

Simple and doesnt require any sys tables

Answer 23

Some SQL Generating SQL:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS test;
CREATE TABLE test (
  col001 INTEGER
, col002 INTEGER
, col003 INTEGER
, col004 INTEGER
, col005 INTEGER
, col006 INTEGER
, col007 INTEGER
, col008 INTEGER
, col009 INTEGER
, col010 INTEGER
)
;
INSERT INTO test(col001) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col002) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col005) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col009) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test VALUES (NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL);

SELECT
  CASE ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ordinal_position)
  WHEN 1 THEN 
    'SELECT'+CHAR(10)+'  *'+CHAR(10)+'FROM test'
   +CHAR(10)+'WHERE '
  ELSE
    '   OR '
  END
+ column_name +' IS NOT NULL'
+ CASE ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ordinal_position DESC)
  WHEN 1 THEN 
    CHAR(10)+';'
  ELSE
    ''
  END
  FROM information_schema.columns
  WHERE table_schema='dbo'
    AND table_name = 'test'
ORDER BY
  ordinal_position;

-- the whole scenario. Works for 10 , will work for 100, too:

-- out -----------------------------------------------
-- out  SELECT
-- out   *
-- out FROM test
-- out WHERE col001 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col002 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col003 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col004 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col005 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col006 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col007 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col008 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col009 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col010 IS NOT NULL
-- out ;