Getting Multipart Identifier could not be bound using sp_MSforeachtable - sql

Question

I'm using the sp_MSForeachtable to retrieve the columnames of all tables and concatenating the columnames in a single string. I'm using the following query. I've executed the same providing the parameter through a variable for a single table and works perfectly, but when executed from the SP it fails with the error 'The multi-part identifier "dbo.TableNm" could not be bound.'
DECLARE #query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #query =
'DECLARE #Names VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE #DB VARCHAR(255)
SELECT #Names = COALESCE(#Names + '', '', '''') + COLUMN_NAME FROM Information_Schema.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = ?
SELECT TOP 1 #DB = TABLE_CATALOG FROM Information_Schema.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = ?
SELECT #DB AS [DataBase], ? AS [Table], #Names AS [Columns]'
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable #query
I thought the error might be associated with having multiple tables with the same name in different databases so I tried pre-fixing the database but i still get the same error.
DECLARE #query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #query =
'DECLARE #Names VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE #DB VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE #TableNm VARCHAR(255) = ?
SET #DB = ''People_Directory''
SELECT #Names = COALESCE(#Names + '', '', '''') + COLUMN_NAME FROM Information_Schema.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = #TableNm
AND TABLE_CATALOG = #DB
SELECT #DB AS [DataBase], #TableNm AS [Table], #Names AS [Columns]'
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable #query
I'll keep trying bu I'm running out of ideas. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

The ? in the query will be replaced with the quoted schema-qualified name of the table. It will not be enclosed in quotes, so your query is equivalent to:
SELECT ...
WHERE TABLE_NAME = [dbo].[YourTable]
...
SELECT #DB As [DataBase], [dbo].[YourTable] As [Table], #Names As [Columns]
This will obviously generate an error.
You'll need to add the quotes around the ? so that it's treated as a string. However, your query still won't work, as the TABLE_NAME column doesn't include the schema name, and isn't quoted.
To make the query work as expected, you'll need to combine the TABLE_SCHEMA and TABLE_NAME columns, and make sure the values are quoted, before comparing to the current table name:
DECLARE #query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #query =
'DECLARE #Names VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE #DB VARCHAR(255)
SELECT #Names = COALESCE(#Names + '', '', '''') + COLUMN_NAME FROM Information_Schema.COLUMNS
WHERE QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + ''.'' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) = ''?''
SELECT TOP 1 #DB = TABLE_CATALOG FROM Information_Schema.COLUMNS
WHERE QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + ''.'' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) = ''?''
SELECT #DB AS [DataBase], ''?'' AS [Table], #Names AS [Columns]'
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable #query
EDIT:
You don't actually need to use sp_MSforeachtable to do this. Using one of the methods from this article, you can retrieve this information in a single query:
SELECT
T.TABLE_CATALOG As [DataBase],
QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_NAME) As [Table],
STUFF(
(
SELECT ', ' + COLUMN_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS As C
WHERE C.TABLE_CATALOG = T.TABLE_CATALOG
And C.TABLE_SCHEMA = T.TABLE_SCHEMA
And C.TABLE_NAME = T.TABLE_NAME
ORDER BY C.ORDINAL_POSITION
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'varchar(max)')
, 1, 1, '') As [Columns]
FROM
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES As T
;