Find a value anywhere in a database

Question

Given a #, how do I discover in what table and column it could be found within?

I don\'t care if it\'s fast, it just needs to work.

Answer 1

Another way using JOIN and CURSOR:

USE My_Database;

-- Store results in a local temp table so that.  I'm using a
-- local temp table so that I can access it in SP_EXECUTESQL.
create table #tmp (
    tbl nvarchar(max),
    col nvarchar(max),
    val nvarchar(max)   
);

declare @tbl nvarchar(max);
declare @col nvarchar(max);
declare @q nvarchar(max);
declare @search nvarchar(max) = 'my search key';

-- Create a cursor on all columns in the database
declare c cursor for
SELECT tbls.TABLE_NAME, cols.COLUMN_NAME  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES AS tbls
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS cols
ON tbls.TABLE_NAME = cols.TABLE_NAME

-- For each table and column pair, see if the search value exists.
open c
fetch next from c into @tbl, @col
while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
begin
    -- Look for the search key in current table column and if found add it to the results.
    SET @q = 'INSERT INTO #tmp SELECT ''' + @tbl + ''', ''' + @col + ''', ' + @col + ' FROM ' + @tbl + ' WHERE ' + @col + ' LIKE ''%' + @search + '%'''
    EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @q
    fetch next from c into @tbl, @col
end
close c
deallocate c

-- Get results
select * from #tmp

-- Remove local temp table.
drop table #tmp