SQL Server SELECT where any column contains 'x'

Question

Using SQL Server 2008, say I have a table called testing with 80 columns and I want to find a value called foo.

I can do:

S         


        

Answer 1

I think this is one of the best ways of doing it

SELECT * FROM sys.columns  a
inner join 
(
SELECT object_id
FROM sys.tables 
where 
type='U'--user table
and name like 'testing' 
) b on a.object_id=b.object_id
WHERE a.name like '%foo%'