How can I search all columns in a table?

Question

How can I search all columns of a table in SQL Server?

Answer 1

I can't take credit, but I found this and it works perfectly. You can add additional data types to the WHERE clause to include other types, as well as adding a schema name to the JOIN (commented below) to limit your search, if needed.

DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(MAX) 
DECLARE @SearchString VARCHAR(100) 
SET @SQL='' 

-- ------------------------------------------ 
-- Enter the string to be searched for here : 
SET @SearchString='' 
-- ------------------------------------------ 

SELECT   @SQL = @SQL + 'SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(MAX),COUNT(*)) + '' matches in column ''+'''
     + C.name + '''+'' on table '' + ''' + SC.name + '.' + T.name + 
     ''' [Matches for '''+@SearchString+''':] FROM ' + 
     QUOTENAME(SC.name) + '.' + QUOTENAME(T.name) + ' WHERE ' + QUOTENAME(C.name) + 
     ' LIKE ''%' + @SearchString + 
     '%'' HAVING COUNT(*)>0 UNION ALL ' +CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) 

FROM     sys.columns C 
JOIN     sys.tables T ON C.object_id=T.object_id 
JOIN     sys.schemas SC ON SC.schema_id=T.schema_id -- AND SC.name = ''
JOIN     sys.types ST ON C.user_type_id=ST.user_type_id 
JOIN     sys.types SYST ON ST.system_type_id=SYST.user_type_id
    AND ST.system_type_id=SYST.system_type_id 

WHERE    SYST.name IN ('varchar','nvarchar','text','ntext','char','nchar') 

ORDER BY T.name, C.name 

-- Strip off the last UNION ALL 

IF LEN(@SQL)>12 
  SELECT @SQL=LEFT(@SQL,LEN(@SQL)- 12) 

EXEC(@SQL) 
--PRINT @SQL

Reference: https://www.sqlmatters.com/Articles/Searching%20all%20columns%20in%20all%20tables%20in%20a%20database.aspx