SQL Comments on Create Table on SQL Server 2008

Question

I need to create some pretty big tables in SQL Server 2008, while I do have SQL Server Management Studio, I would like to comment the tables and the columns when I create th

Answer 1

There are good answers in this post. Adding that the value 'MS_Description' could be other thing. For example, we can use 'SourceDescription' for details about the source the data, 'TableDescription' for table and 'ColumnDescription' for each column on table.

Example:

-- Create example table
create table testTablename(
    id int,
    name varchar(20),
    registerNumber bigint
)

-- SourceDescription
EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty 
    @name=N'SourceDescription', 
    @value=N'Result of process x union y ' , -- Comment about the source this data. 
    @level0type=N'SCHEMA',
    @level0name=N'dbo', 
    @level1type=N'TABLE',
    @level1name=N'testTableName' -- Name of Table

-- TableDescription
EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty 
    @name=N'TableDescription', 
    @value=N'Table is used for send email to clients.' , -- Coment about the used of table
    @level0type=N'SCHEMA',
    @level0name=N'dbo', 
    @level1type=N'TABLE',
    @level1name=N'testTableName'

-- ColumnDescription
EXECUTE sp_addextendedproperty 
    @name = 'ColumnDescription', 
    @value = 'Unique identification of employer. Its the registry of company too.', 
    @level0type = 'SCHEMA', 
    @level0name= N'dbo', 
    @level1type = N'TABLE', 
    @level1name = N'testTableName', 
    @level2type = N'COLUMN', 
    @level2name = N'registerNumber'

-- If necessary, you can delete the comment.
exec sp_dropextendedproperty
    @name = 'ColumnDescription', 
    @level0type = 'SCHEMA', 
    @level0name= N'dbo', 
    @level1type = N'TABLE', 
    @level1name = N'testTableName', 
    @level2type = N'COLUMN', 
    @level2name = N'registerNumber'


-- Show you the table resume
select 
    tables.name tableName,
    tables.create_date,
    tables.modify_date,
    tableDesc.value TableDescription,
    sourceDesc.value SourceDescription
from 
    sys.tables  
    left join sys.extended_properties tableDesc on tables.object_id = tableDesc.major_id and tableDesc.name = 'TableDescription'
    left join sys.extended_properties sourceDesc on tables.object_id = sourceDesc.major_id and sourceDesc.name = 'SourceDescription'
where 
    tableDesc.name in('TableDescription', 'SourceDescription', 'ColumnDescription')
order by tables.name


-- show you the columns resume
select 
    tables.name tableName,
    columns.name columnName,
    extended_properties.value
from 
    sys.tables 
    inner join sys.columns on tables.object_id = columns.object_id
    left join sys.extended_properties on 
        tables.object_id = extended_properties.major_id 
        and columns.column_id = extended_properties.minor_id
        and extended_properties.name in('MS_Description','ColumnDescription')
where
    tables.name = 'testTableName'