Get list of column names containing specific value SQL-Hue - sql

Question

I have 50 tables and I want to get list of all column names containing specific value in the column.
Something like: if 'Test' in column give me the column name. And I want to apply it for all 50 tables
Tables names are: abc1,abc2,abc3, … abcn.

Answer 1

There must be a better way to do this, but I did come across a query like this from a colleague a couple of years ago and I found the below (or a script similar to below that i may have tweaked before sending onto him) somewhere online (I imagine here on SO, but can't see to find where - I will update with link to original source if i can find it).
I would also just point out that this is a very heavy proc so I would take a backup of your db and restore it to a dev or test environment before executing it. Or even execute it against a test db that you might have in your localdb. The script searches all columns of all tables in a selected db for a string.
Personally I would probably export the data from each table to txt or csv and do a Find within them.
CREATE PROCEDURE FindMyData_String
#DataToFind NVARCHAR(4000),
#ExactMatch BIT = 0
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE #Temp TABLE(RowId INT IDENTITY(1,1), SchemaName sysname, TableName sysname, ColumnName SysName, DataType VARCHAR(100), DataFound BIT)
INSERT INTO #Temp(TableName,SchemaName, ColumnName, DataType)
SELECT C.Table_Name,C.TABLE_SCHEMA, C.Column_Name, C.Data_Type
FROM Information_Schema.Columns AS C
INNER Join Information_Schema.Tables AS T
ON C.Table_Name = T.Table_Name
AND C.TABLE_SCHEMA = T.TABLE_SCHEMA
WHERE Table_Type = 'Base Table'
And Data_Type In ('ntext','text','nvarchar','nchar','varchar','char')
DECLARE #i INT
DECLARE #MAX INT
DECLARE #TableName sysname
DECLARE #ColumnName sysname
DECLARE #SchemaName sysname
DECLARE #SQL NVARCHAR(4000)
DECLARE #PARAMETERS NVARCHAR(4000)
DECLARE #DataExists BIT
DECLARE #SQLTemplate NVARCHAR(4000)
SELECT #SQLTemplate = CASE WHEN #ExactMatch = 1
THEN 'If Exists(Select *
From ReplaceTableName
Where Convert(nVarChar(4000), [ReplaceColumnName])
= ''' + #DataToFind + '''
)
Set #DataExists = 1
Else
Set #DataExists = 0'
ELSE 'If Exists(Select *
From ReplaceTableName
Where Convert(nVarChar(4000), [ReplaceColumnName])
Like ''%' + #DataToFind + '%''
)
Set #DataExists = 1
Else
Set #DataExists = 0'
END,
#PARAMETERS = '#DataExists Bit OUTPUT',
#i = 1
SELECT #i = 1, #MAX = MAX(RowId)
FROM #Temp
WHILE #i <= #MAX
BEGIN
SELECT #SQL = REPLACE(REPLACE(#SQLTemplate, 'ReplaceTableName', QUOTENAME(SchemaName) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TableName)), 'ReplaceColumnName', ColumnName)
FROM #Temp
WHERE RowId = #i
PRINT #SQL
EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL #SQL, #PARAMETERS, #DataExists = #DataExists OUTPUT
IF #DataExists =1
UPDATE #Temp SET DataFound = 1 WHERE RowId = #i
SET #i = #i + 1
END
SELECT SchemaName,TableName, ColumnName
FROM #Temp
WHERE DataFound = 1
GO