SQL Server: Extract Table Meta-Data (description, fields and their data types)

I am trying to find a way to extract information about my tables in SQL Server (2008).
The data I need needs to include the description of the table (filled from the Description property in the Properties Window), a list of fields of that table and their respective data types.

Is there any way I can extract such meta-data? I presume I have to use some sys sp but I'n not sure which one.

To get the description data, you unfortunately have to use sysobjects/syscolumns to get the ids:

SELECT		u.name + '.' + t.name AS [table],
            td.value AS [table_desc],
			c.name AS [column],
			cd.value AS [column_desc]
FROM		sysobjects t
INNER JOIN	sysusers u
	ON		u.uid = t.uid
LEFT OUTER JOIN	sys.extended_properties td
	ON		td.major_id = t.id
    AND		td.minor_id = 0
	AND		td.name = 'MS_Description'
INNER JOIN	syscolumns c
	ON		c.id = t.id
LEFT OUTER JOIN	sys.extended_properties cd
	ON		cd.major_id = c.id
	AND		cd.minor_id = c.colid
	AND		cd.name = 'MS_Description'
WHERE t.type = 'u'
ORDER BY	t.name, c.colorder

You can do it with info-schema, but you'd have to concatenate etc to call OBJECT_ID() - so what would be the point?

Generic information about tables and columns can be found in these tables:

select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS

The table description is an extended property, you can query them from sys.extended_properties:

select 
    TableName = tbl.table_schema + '.' + tbl.table_name, 
    TableDescription = prop.value,
    ColumnName = col.column_name, 
    ColumnDataType = col.data_type
FROM information_schema.tables tbl
INNER JOIN information_schema.columns col 
    ON col.table_name = tbl.table_name
    AND col.table_schema = tbl.table_schema
LEFT JOIN sys.extended_properties prop 
    ON prop.major_id = object_id(tbl.table_schema + '.' + tbl.table_name) 
    AND prop.minor_id = 0
    AND prop.name = 'MS_Description' 
WHERE tbl.table_type = 'base table'

You could try sp_help <Name of object>

I liked @Andomar's answer best, but I needed the column descriptions also. Here is his query modified to include those also. (Uncomment the last part of the WHERE clause to return only rows where either description is non-null).

SELECT
    TableName = tbl.table_schema + '.' + tbl.table_name, 
    TableDescription = tableProp.value,
    ColumnName = col.column_name, 
    ColumnDataType = col.data_type,
	ColumnDescription = colDesc.ColumnDescription
FROM information_schema.tables tbl
INNER JOIN information_schema.columns col 
    ON col.table_name = tbl.table_name
LEFT JOIN sys.extended_properties tableProp 
    ON tableProp.major_id = object_id(tbl.table_schema + '.' + tbl.table_name) 
		AND tableProp.minor_id = 0
		AND tableProp.name = 'MS_Description' 
LEFT JOIN (
	SELECT sc.object_id, sc.column_id, sc.name, colProp.[value] AS ColumnDescription
	FROM sys.columns sc
	INNER JOIN sys.extended_properties colProp
		ON colProp.major_id = sc.object_id
			AND colProp.minor_id = sc.column_id
			AND colProp.name = 'MS_Description' 
) colDesc
	ON colDesc.object_id = object_id(tbl.table_schema + '.' + tbl.table_name)
		AND colDesc.name = col.COLUMN_NAME
WHERE tbl.table_type = 'base table'
--AND tableProp.[value] IS NOT NULL OR colDesc.ColumnDescription IS NOT null

Using Object Catalog Views:

SELECT  T.NAME AS [TABLE NAME], C.NAME AS [COLUMN NAME], P.NAME AS [DATA TYPE], P.MAX_LENGTH AS[SIZE],   CAST(P.PRECISION AS VARCHAR) +‘/’+ CAST(P.SCALE AS VARCHAR) AS [PRECISION/SCALE]
FROM ADVENTUREWORKS.SYS.OBJECTS AS T
JOIN ADVENTUREWORKS.SYS.COLUMNS AS C
ON T.OBJECT_ID=C.OBJECT_ID
JOIN ADVENTUREWORKS.SYS.TYPES AS P
ON C.SYSTEM_TYPE_ID=P.SYSTEM_TYPE_ID
WHERE T.TYPE_DESC=‘USER_TABLE’;

Using Information Schema Views

SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, ORDINAL_POSITION,
       COLUMN_DEFAULT, DATA_TYPE, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,
       NUMERIC_PRECISION, NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX, NUMERIC_SCALE,
       DATETIME_PRECISION
FROM ADVENTUREWORKS.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS

Check this out:

SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA ,
       TABLE_NAME ,
       COLUMN_NAME ,
       ORDINAL_POSITION ,
       COLUMN_DEFAULT ,
       DATA_TYPE ,
       CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH ,
       NUMERIC_PRECISION ,
       NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX ,
       NUMERIC_SCALE ,
       DATETIME_PRECISION
FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where TABLE_SCHEMA in ('dbo','meta')
and table_name in (select name from sys.tables)
order by TABLE_SCHEMA ,       TABLE_NAME ,ORDINAL_POSITION

Depending on how much metadata you want, this is working for me: where

could be the whole thing like Northwind.dbo.Products or just Products

SELECT c.name Field, 
    t.name Type,
    c.Precision, 
    c.Scale,
    c.is_nullable,
    c.collation_name 
FROM sys.columns c 
INNER JOIN sys.types t ON t.system_type_id=c.system_type_id
WHERE object_id=object_id('<table to inspect>')
ORDER BY column_id

If you are pulling your queries using java code, there is a great class that can be used, ResultSetMetaData, that can retrieve column names and the properties of the columns (type and length).

Example

ResultSet rs = null;

		rs = sql.executeQuery();

		if (rs != null) {
			if (rs.next()) {
				ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
				for (int i = 1; i <= rsmd.getColumnCount(); i++) {
					System.out.println("column name: "
							+ rsmd.getColumnName(i));
					System.out.println("column size: "
							+ rsmd.getColumnDisplaySize(i));
				}
			}

Easiest way to get basic metadata summary is to use a temp table and then use EXEC function:

SELECT * INTO #TempTable FROM TableName
EXEC [tempdb].[dbo].[sp_help] N'#TempTable'

For all columns in the table, this will give you Column Name, Data Type,
Computed Length, Prec,
Scale, Nullable,
TrimTrailingBlanks, FixedLenNullInSource, Collation Type

I use this SQL code to get all the information about a column.

SELECT
COL.COLUMN_NAME,
ORDINAL_POSITION,
DATA_TYPE,
CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,
NUMERIC_PRECISION,
NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX,
NUMERIC_SCALE,
DATETIME_PRECISION,
IS_NULLABLE,
CONSTRAINT_TYPE,
COLUMNPROPERTY(object_id(COL.TABLE_NAME), COL.COLUMN_NAME, 'IsIdentity') IS_IDENTITY,
COLUMNPROPERTY(object_id(COL.TABLE_NAME), COL.COLUMN_NAME, 'IsComputed') IS_COMPUTED

FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS COL 
LEFT OUTER JOIN 
(
	SELECT COLUMN_NAME, CONSTRAINT_TYPE 
	FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE A
	INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS B 
	ON A.CONSTRAINT_NAME = B.CONSTRAINT_NAME
	WHERE A.TABLE_NAME = 'User'
) CONS
ON COL.COLUMN_NAME = CONS.COLUMN_NAME
WHERE COL.TABLE_NAME = 'User'

If you simply want to view the information in a convenient way, Red Gate's SQL Prompt might help.

If you hover over the object text in a query window SQL Prompt will display the MS_Description extended property text in a tooltip. Clicking on the tooltip will open a dialog displaying the column information and also the object's DDL.

http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-prompt/

If it is OK to use .NET code I'd suggest using SMO: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162169.aspx, In your particular case it would be the Table class http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sqlserver.management.smo.table.aspx This would be a more portable solution than using version specific system views and tables.

If this is something you are going to use on a regular basis - you might want to write a simple console application, perhaps with a runtime T4 code generator http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee844259.aspx

If it's just a one-off task - you could use my LiveDoco's( http://www.livedoco.com ) export to XML feature with an optional XSLT transform or I'm sure there are free tools out there that can do this. This one looks okay: http://sqldbdoc.codeplex.com/ - supports XML via XSLT, but I'm not sure if you can run it for a selection of tables though (With LiveDoco you can).

  SELECT
    sc.name AS ColumnName
   ,ep.*
  FROM
    sys.columns AS sc
    INNER JOIN sys.extended_properties AS ep
      ON ep.major_id = sc.[object_id]
         AND ep.minor_id = sc.column_id
  WHERE

--here put your desired table
    sc.[object_id] = OBJECT_ID('[Northwind].[dbo].[Products]')

-- this is optional, remove this and you get all extended props
    AND ep.name = 'MS_Description'

select Col.name Columnname,prop.Value Description, tbl.name Tablename, sch.name schemaname
    from sys.columns col  left outer join  sys.extended_properties prop
    				on prop.major_id =  col.object_id and prop.minor_id = col.column_id
    				inner join sys.tables tbl on col.object_id =  tbl.object_id
    				Left outer join sys.schemas sch on sch.schema_id = tbl.schema_id

I just finished a .net library with a few useful queries that return strongly typed C# objects for code gen/ t4 templates.

nuget SqlMeta

Project Site

github source

/// <summary>
    ///     Get All Table Names
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public List<string> GetTableNames()
    {
        var sql = @"SELECT name
                    FROM dbo.sysobjects
                    WHERE xtype = 'U' 
                    AND name <> 'sysdiagrams'
                    order by name asc";

        return databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<string>(
            sql: sql))
            .ToList();
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get table info by schema and table or null for all
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="schema"></param>
    /// <param name="table"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public List<SqlTableInfo> GetTableInfo(string schema = null, string table = null)
    {
        var result = new List<SqlTableInfo>();

        var sql = @"SELECT
                    c.TABLE_CATALOG AS [TableCatalog]
                ,   c.TABLE_SCHEMA AS [Schema]
                ,   c.TABLE_NAME AS [TableName]
                ,   c.COLUMN_NAME AS [ColumnName]
                ,   c.ORDINAL_POSITION AS [OrdinalPosition]
                ,   c.COLUMN_DEFAULT AS [ColumnDefault]
                ,   c.IS_NULLABLE AS [Nullable]
                ,   c.DATA_TYPE AS [DataType]
                ,   c.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH AS [CharacterMaxLength]
                ,   c.CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH AS [CharacterOctetLenth]
                ,   c.NUMERIC_PRECISION AS [NumericPrecision]
                ,   c.NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX AS [NumericPrecisionRadix]
                ,   c.NUMERIC_SCALE AS [NumericScale]
                ,   c.DATETIME_PRECISION AS [DatTimePrecision]
                ,   c.CHARACTER_SET_CATALOG AS [CharacterSetCatalog]
                ,   c.CHARACTER_SET_SCHEMA AS [CharacterSetSchema]
                ,   c.CHARACTER_SET_NAME AS [CharacterSetName]
                ,   c.COLLATION_CATALOG AS [CollationCatalog]
                ,   c.COLLATION_SCHEMA AS [CollationSchema]
                ,   c.COLLATION_NAME AS [CollationName]
                ,   c.DOMAIN_CATALOG AS [DomainCatalog]
                ,   c.DOMAIN_SCHEMA AS [DomainSchema]
                ,   c.DOMAIN_NAME AS [DomainName]
                ,   IsPrimaryKey = CONVERT(BIT, (SELECT
                            COUNT(*)
                        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS tc
                            ,   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE cu
                        WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY'
                        AND tc.CONSTRAINT_NAME = cu.CONSTRAINT_NAME
                        AND tc.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
                        AND cu.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
                        AND cu.COLUMN_NAME = c.COLUMN_NAME)
                    )
                ,   IsIdentity = CONVERT(BIT, (SELECT
                            COUNT(*)
                        FROM sys.objects obj
                        INNER JOIN sys.COLUMNS col
                            ON obj.object_id = col.object_id
                        WHERE obj.type = 'U'
                        AND obj.Name = c.TABLE_NAME
                        AND col.Name = c.COLUMN_NAME
                        AND col.is_identity = 1)
                    )
                FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c
                WHERE (@Schema IS NULL
                        OR c.TABLE_SCHEMA = @Schema)
                    AND (@TableName IS NULL
                        OR c.TABLE_NAME = @TableName)
                    ";

        var columns = databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<SqlColumnInfo>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { Schema = schema, TableName = table },
            commandType: CommandType.Text)
            .ToList());

        var refs = this.GetReferentialConstraints(table: table, schema: schema);

        foreach (var tableName in columns.Select(info => info.TableName).Distinct())
        {
            var tableColumns = columns.Where(info => info.TableName == tableName).ToList();
            var children = refs.Where(c => c.UniqueTableName == tableName).ToList();
            var parents = refs.Where(c => c.TableName == tableName).ToList();
            result.Add(new SqlTableInfo
            {
                TableName = tableName,
                Columns = tableColumns,
                ChildConstraints = children,
                ParentConstraints = parents
            });

        }

        return result;
    }

    public List<SqlReferentialConstraint> GetReferentialConstraints(string table = null, string schema = null)
    {
        //https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa175805%28v=sql.80%29.aspx
        //https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa175805.312ron1%28l=en-us,v=sql.80%29.jpg
        //https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186778.aspx

        var sql = @"
                    SELECT
                        KCU1.CONSTRAINT_NAME AS [ConstraintName]
                    ,   KCU1.TABLE_NAME AS [TableName]
                    ,   KCU1.COLUMN_NAME AS [ColumnName]
                    ,   KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME AS [UniqueConstraintName]
                    ,   KCU2.TABLE_NAME AS [UniqueTableName]
                    ,   KCU2.COLUMN_NAME AS [UniqueColumnName]
                    ,   RC.MATCH_OPTION AS [MatchOption]
                    ,   RC.UPDATE_RULE AS [UpdateRule]
                    ,   RC.DELETE_RULE AS [DeleteRule]
                    FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS RC
                    LEFT JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU1 ON KCU1.CONSTRAINT_CATALOG = RC.CONSTRAINT_CATALOG
                        AND KCU1.CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA = RC.CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA
                        AND KCU1.CONSTRAINT_NAME = RC.CONSTRAINT_NAME
                    LEFT JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU2 ON KCU2.CONSTRAINT_CATALOG = RC.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_CATALOG
                        AND KCU2.CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA = RC.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA
                        AND KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME = RC.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_NAME
                    WHERE KCU1.ORDINAL_POSITION = KCU2.ORDINAL_POSITION
                            AND (@Table IS NULL
                                OR KCU1.TABLE_NAME = @Table
                                OR KCU2.TABLE_NAME = @Table)
                            AND (@Schema IS NULL
                                OR KCU1.TABLE_SCHEMA = @Schema
                                OR KCU2.TABLE_SCHEMA = @Schema)
                    ";

        return databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<SqlReferentialConstraint>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { Table = table, Schema = schema },
            commandType: CommandType.Text))
            .ToList();
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get Primary Key Column by schema and table name
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="schema"></param>
    /// <param name="tableName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public string GetPrimaryKeyColumnName(string schema, string tableName)
    {
        var sql = @"SELECT
                    B.COLUMN_NAME
                FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS A
                    ,   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE B
                WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY'
                    AND A.CONSTRAINT_NAME = B.CONSTRAINT_NAME
                    AND A.TABLE_NAME = @TableName
                    AND A.TABLE_SCHEMA = @Schema";

        return databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<string>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { TableName = tableName, Schema = schema },
            commandType: CommandType.Text))
            .SingleOrDefault();
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get Identity Column by table name
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="tableName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public string GetIdentityColumnName(string tableName)
    {
        var sql = @"SELECT
                    c.Name
                FROM sys.objects o
                INNER JOIN sys.columns c ON o.object_id = c.object_id
                WHERE o.type = 'U'
                    AND c.is_identity = 1
                    AND o.Name = @TableName";

        return databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<string>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { TableName = tableName },
            commandType: CommandType.Text))
            .SingleOrDefault();
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get All Stored Procedures by schema
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="schema"></param>
    /// <param name="procName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public List<SqlStoredProcedureInfo> GetStoredProcedureInfo(string schema = null, string procName = null)
    {
        var result = new List<SqlStoredProcedureInfo>();

        var sql = @"SELECT
                        SPECIFIC_NAME AS [Name]
                    ,   SPECIFIC_SCHEMA AS [Schema]
                    ,   Created AS [Created]
                    ,   LAST_ALTERED AS [LastAltered]
                    FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES
                    WHERE ROUTINE_TYPE = 'PROCEDURE'
                        AND (SPECIFIC_SCHEMA = @Schema
                            OR @Schema IS NULL)
                        AND (SPECIFIC_NAME = @ProcName
                            OR @ProcName IS NULL)
                        AND ((SPECIFIC_NAME NOT LIKE 'sp_%'
                                AND SPECIFIC_NAME NOT LIKE 'procUtils_GenerateClass'
                                AND (SPECIFIC_SCHEMA = @Schema
                                    OR @Schema IS NULL))
                            OR SPECIFIC_SCHEMA <> @Schema)";

        var sprocs = databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<SqlStoredProcedureInfo>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { Schema = schema, ProcName = procName },
            commandType: CommandType.Text).ToList());

        foreach (var s in sprocs)
        {
            s.Parameters = GetStoredProcedureInputParameters(sprocName: s.Name, schema: schema);
            s.ResultColumns = GetColumnInfoFromStoredProcResult(storedProcName: s.Name, schema: schema);
            result.Add(s);
        }

        return result;
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get Column info from Stored procedure result set
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="schema"></param>
    /// <param name="storedProcName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public List<DataColumn> GetColumnInfoFromStoredProcResult(string schema, string storedProcName)
    {
        //this one actually needs to use the dataset because it has the only accurate information about columns and if they can be null or not.
        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(schema))
        {
            sb.Append(String.Format("exec [{0}].[{1}] ", schema, storedProcName));
        }
        else
        {
            sb.Append(String.Format("exec [{0}] ", storedProcName));
        }

        var prms = GetStoredProcedureInputParameters(schema, storedProcName);

        var count = 1;
        foreach (var param in prms)
        {
            sb.Append(String.Format("{0}=null", param.Name));
            if (count < prms.Count)
            {
                sb.Append(", ");
            }
            count++;
        }

        var ds = new DataSet();
        using (var sqlConnection = (SqlConnection)databaseWrapper.GetOpenDbConnection())
        {
            using (var sqlAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(sb.ToString(), sqlConnection))
            {
                if (sqlConnection.State != ConnectionState.Open) sqlConnection.Open();

                sqlAdapter.SelectCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.SchemaOnly);

                sqlConnection.Close();

                sqlAdapter.FillSchema(ds, SchemaType.Source, "MyTable");
            }
        }

        var list = new List<DataColumn>();
        if (ds.Tables.Count > 0)
        {
            list = ds.Tables["MyTable"].Columns.Cast<DataColumn>().ToList();
        }

        return list;
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Get the input parameters for a stored procedure
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="schema"></param>
    /// <param name="sprocName"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public List<SqlParameterInfo> GetStoredProcedureInputParameters(string schema = null, string sprocName = null)
    {
        var sql = @"SELECT
                    SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS [Schema]
                ,   P.Name AS Name
                ,   @ProcName AS ProcedureName
                ,   TYPE_NAME(P.user_type_id) AS [ParameterDataType]
                ,   P.max_length AS [MaxLength]
                ,   P.Precision AS [Precision]
                ,   P.Scale AS Scale
                ,   P.has_default_value AS HasDefaultValue
                ,   P.default_value AS DefaultValue
                ,   P.object_id AS ObjectId
                ,   P.parameter_id AS ParameterId
                ,   P.system_type_id AS SystemTypeId
                ,   P.user_type_id AS UserTypeId
                ,   P.is_output AS IsOutput
                ,   P.is_cursor_ref AS IsCursor
                ,   P.is_xml_document AS IsXmlDocument
                ,   P.xml_collection_id AS XmlCollectionId
                ,   P.is_readonly AS IsReadOnly
                FROM sys.objects AS SO
                INNER JOIN sys.parameters AS P ON SO.object_id = P.object_id
                WHERE SO.object_id IN (SELECT
                            object_id
                        FROM sys.objects
                        WHERE type IN ('P', 'FN'))
                    AND (SO.Name = @ProcName
                        OR @ProcName IS NULL)
                    AND (SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) = @Schema
                        OR @Schema IS NULL)
                ORDER BY P.parameter_id ASC";

        var result = databaseWrapper.Call(connection => connection.Query<SqlParameterInfo>(
            sql: sql,
            param: new { Schema = schema, ProcName = sprocName },
            commandType: CommandType.Text))
            .ToList();

        return result;
    }

Foreign Key Metadata

There are 2 simple ways:

• Option 1

  sp_help 'schema.table_name'

• Option 2

  SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.columns c WHERE c.table_name = 'table_name'