SQL distinct and count for a column in multiple tables - sql

Question

So what I want is to have a table of distinct values and the count for those values. basically I want it to look like this:
DistinctValue | Count
Bob | 4
Fred | 5
George | 2
Joeseph | 1
for a single table I use :
SELECT ColumnName, COUNT(*) from TableName group by Column
How would I do this so that it would span across multiple tables. I have about say 30, possibly more, tables I need to do this for.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if there's more information you need. Oh, and there's no worry about the column name because all the tables have the same column name.

Answer 1

WITH mytbl AS (
SELECT ColumnName, COUNT(*) AS myCount from TableName group by Column
UNION ALL
SELECT ColumnName, COUNT(*) from TableName2 group by Column
... a union all for every table
)
SELECT ColumnName, SUM(myCount)
FROM mytbl
GROUP BY ColumnName
-- If you are using an earlier version of MS SQL, the UNION statements can be put in a big sub select or a table variable.
-- IE, they'd take the place of mytbl in the last query replace mytbl in the bottom query with the UNIONS from the CTE

Answer 2

SELECT
t.name,
count(c.name) as columnsname
FROM
sys.tables t
inner join sys.columns c
ON t.object_id = c.object_id
group by t.name

Answer 3

You'll need to create and execute dynamic tsql to get your results:
DECLARE #Tsql NVARCHAR(MAX) = ''
DECLARE #ColumnName SYSNAME = 'YourColumnName'
SELECT #Tsql = #Tsql + 'SELECT ''[' + c.TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + c.TABLE_NAME + ']'' AS TableName, ' +
'[' + #ColumnName + '], COUNT(*) AS RecordCount FROM [' + c.TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + c.TABLE_NAME + '] GROUP BY [' + #ColumnName + '] UNION ' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
ON t.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND t.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
--Comment out the next line if you want data/counts for views too.
AND t.TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
WHERE c.COLUMN_NAME = #ColumnName
--Remove the last UNION (and carriage-return, line-feed)
SELECT #Tsql = LEFT(#Tsql, LEN(#Tsql) - 8)
--Verify query.
PRINT #Tsql
--Uncomment when ready to proceed.
--EXEC (#Tsql)