How to search all columns of all tables in a microsoft sql database for a keyword (including any data type)

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This specific content was written 14 years ago. Please keep this in mind as it may be outdated and not adhering to best-practices.

 

CREATE PROC SearchAllTables
(
	@SearchStr nvarchar(100)
)
AS
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
		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
			SET @ColumnName =
			(
				SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
				FROM 	INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
				WHERE 		TABLE_SCHEMA	= PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
					AND	TABLE_NAME	= PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
                                    <strong>   <span style="color: #ff0000;">--EDIT HERE TO CHANGE TYPES</span></strong>
					AND	DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')
					AND	QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
			)

			IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL
			BEGIN
				INSERT INTO #Results
				EXEC
				(
					'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) 
					FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
					' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
				)
			END
		END	
	END

	SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results
END



Menelaos Bakopoulos

Menelaos Bakopoulos

Mr. Menelaos Bakopoulos is currently pursuing his PhD both at Center for TeleInFrastruktur (CTiF) at Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark and Athens Information Technology (AIT) in Athens, Greece. He received a Master in Information Technology and Telecommunications Systems from Athens Information Technology and a B.Sc. in Computer Science & Management Information Systems from the American College of Thessaloniki. Since April 2008 he has been a member of the Multimedia, Knowledge, and Web Technologies Group.

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