Generating data dictionary for SQL Server database

Question

I am trying to generate a data dictionary for a table in my database.

Ideally I would like to export the column names, data type, restrictions and extended property descriptions.

How can this be achieved?

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 27 '15 at 07:57

You can try this query:

SELECT
    IC.COLUMN_NAME,
    IC.Data_TYPE,
    EP.[Value] as [MS_Description],
    IKU.CONSTRAINT_NAME, 
    ITC.CONSTRAINT_TYPE,
    IC.IS_NULLABLE
 FROM
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS IC
    INNER JOIN sys.columns sc ON OBJECT_ID(QUOTENAME(IC.TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(IC.TABLE_NAME)) = sc.[object_id] AND IC.COLUMN_NAME = sc.name
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.extended_properties EP ON sc.[object_id] = EP.major_id AND sc.[column_id] = EP.minor_id AND EP.name = 'MS_Description' AND EP.class = 1 
    LEFT OUTER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE IKU ON IKU.COLUMN_NAME = IC.COLUMN_NAME and IKU.TABLE_NAME = IC.TABLE_NAME and IKU.TABLE_CATALOG = IC.TABLE_CATALOG
    LEFT OUTER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS ITC ON ITC.TABLE_NAME = IKU.TABLE_NAME and ITC.CONSTRAINT_NAME = IKU.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE IC.TABLE_CATALOG = 'Database'
  and IC.TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo'
  and IC.TABLE_NAME = 'Table'
order by IC.ORDINAL_POSITION

or schema documentation generator like Dataedo (which I am the Product Manager of).

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '11 at 01:48

9

You can get at this via a combination of SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS and using fn_listextendedproperty.

answered Jun 27 '11 at 01:48

mattmc3

17,595
7
83
103

This didn't work for me, can you give me some feedback. here is error I get `ORA-00942: table or view does not exist` – Mowgli May 17 '13 at 14:18
2

Your error indicates you tried this on Oracle. This is a SQL Server answer to a SQL Server question. – mattmc3 May 19 '13 at 20:53
Thanks mattmc3. Do you know how to do this on Oracle? – Mowgli May 20 '13 at 15:49

parash · Answer 3 · 2019-07-23T07:52:29.023

0

To generate a data dictionary of your SQL Server database, I suggest you use ERBuilder data modeller, just follow these steps:

To generate an ER diagram it is necessary to first, reverse engineer your database select: Menu -> File -> Reverse Engineer the ER diagram will be displayed in ERBuilder. To generate a data dictionary of your database select: Menu -> Tool -> Generate model documentation

edited Jul 23 '19 at 07:52

answered Jul 21 '19 at 14:50

parash

21
3

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 22 '22 at 06:22

Since this is the first search result for 'mssql data dictionary', here's a simple query to get the list of tables and columns in a db -

select table_name, ordinal_position, column_name, data_type 
from information_schema.columns 
order by table_name, ordinal_position;

giving eg

"table_name","ordinal_position","column_name","data_type"
Account,1,Account,varchar
Account,2,Type,varchar
Account,3,Description,varchar
Account,4,Rollup_Account,varchar
Account,5,Last_Updated,datetime
Account,6,Section_Name,varchar
Account,7,QB_ID,varchar
Additional_Charge,1,Additional_ChargeKey,int
Additional_Charge,2,Additional_Charge,int
...

Generating data dictionary for SQL Server database

4 Answers4