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

You might need to build an inverted index for your database. It is assured to be pretty fast.

Answer 2

Here, very sweet and small solution:

1) create a store procedure:

create procedure get_table
@find_str varchar(50)
as 
begin
  declare @col_name varchar(500), @tab_name varchar(500);
  declare @find_tab TABLE(table_name varchar(100), column_name varchar(100));

  DECLARE tab_col cursor for 
  select C.name as 'col_name', T.name as tab_name
  from sys.tables as T
  left outer join sys.columns as C on  C.object_id=T.object_id
  left outer join sys.types as TP on  C.system_type_id=TP.system_type_id
  where type='U' 
  and TP.name in('text','ntext','varchar','char','nvarchar','nchar');

  open tab_col
  fetch next from tab_col into @col_name, @tab_name

  while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
  begin        
    insert into @find_tab 
    exec('select ''' +  @tab_name + ''',''' + @col_name + ''' from ' + @tab_name + 
    ' where ' + @col_name + '=''' + @find_str + ''' group by ' + 
    @col_name + ' having count(*)>0');

    fetch next from tab_col into @col_name, @tab_name;
  end
  CLOSE tab_col;  
  DEALLOCATE tab_col; 
  select table_name, column_name from @find_tab;

end

==========================

2) call procedure by calling store procedure:
exec get_table 'serach_string';

Answer 3

I was looking for a just a numeric value = 6.84 - using the other answers here I was able to limit my search to this

Declare @sourceTable Table(id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, table_name varchar(1000), column_name varchar(1000))
Declare @resultsTable Table(id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, table_name varchar(1000))

Insert into @sourceTable(table_name, column_name)
select schema_name(t.schema_id) + '.' + t.name as[table], c.name as column_name
from sys.columns c
join sys.tables t
on t.object_id = c.object_id
where type_name(user_type_id) in ('decimal', 'numeric', 'smallmoney', 'money', 'float', 'real')
order by[table], c.column_id;

DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR
Select table_name, column_name from @sourceTable
DECLARE @mytablename VARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @mycolumnname VARCHAR(1000);

OPEN db_cursor;
FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @mytablename, @mycolumnname

WHILE @ @FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
    Insert into @ResultsTable(table_name)
    EXEC('SELECT ''' + @mytablename + '.' + @mycolumnname + '''  FROM ' + @mytablename + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
    ' WHERE ' + @mycolumnname + '=6.84')
    FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @mytablename, @mycolumnname  
END;
CLOSE db_cursor;
DEALLOCATE db_cursor;
Select Distinct(table_name) from @ResultsTable

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

This is my independent take on this question that I use for my own work. It works in SQL2000 and greater, allows wildcards, column filtering, and will search most of the normal data types.

A pseudo-code description could be select * from * where any like 'foo'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Search all columns in all tables in a database for a string.
-- Does not search: image, sql_variant or user-defined types.
-- Exact search always for money and smallmoney; no wildcards for matching these.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
declare @SearchTerm nvarchar(4000) -- Can be max for SQL2005+
declare @ColumnName sysname

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- SET THESE!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
set @SearchTerm = N'foo' -- Term to be searched for, wildcards okay
set @ColumnName = N'' -- Use to restrict the search to certain columns, wildcards okay, null or empty string for all cols
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- END SET
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

set nocount on

declare @TabCols table (
      id int not null primary key identity
    , table_schema sysname not null
    , table_name sysname not null
    , column_name sysname not null
    , data_type sysname not null
)
insert into @TabCols (table_schema, table_name, column_name, data_type)
    select t.TABLE_SCHEMA, c.TABLE_NAME, c.COLUMN_NAME, c.DATA_TYPE
    from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
        join INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c on t.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
            and t.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
    where 1 = 1
        and t.TABLE_TYPE = 'base table'
        and c.DATA_TYPE not in ('image', 'sql_variant')
        and c.COLUMN_NAME like case when len(@ColumnName) > 0 then @ColumnName else '%' end
    order by c.TABLE_NAME, c.ORDINAL_POSITION

declare
      @table_schema sysname
    , @table_name sysname
    , @column_name sysname
    , @data_type sysname
    , @exists nvarchar(4000) -- Can be max for SQL2005+
    , @sql nvarchar(4000) -- Can be max for SQL2005+
    , @where nvarchar(4000) -- Can be max for SQL2005+
    , @run nvarchar(4000) -- Can be max for SQL2005+

while exists (select null from @TabCols) begin

    select top 1
          @table_schema = table_schema
        , @table_name = table_name
        , @exists = 'select null from [' + table_schema + '].[' + table_name + '] where 1 = 0'
        , @sql = 'select ''' + '[' + table_schema + '].[' + table_name + ']' + ''' as TABLE_NAME, * from [' + table_schema + '].[' + table_name + '] where 1 = 0'
        , @where = ''
    from @TabCols
    order by id

    while exists (select null from @TabCols where table_schema = @table_schema and table_name = @table_name) begin

        select top 1
              @column_name = column_name
            , @data_type = data_type
        from @TabCols
        where table_schema = @table_schema
            and table_name = @table_name
        order by id

        -- Special case for money
        if @data_type in ('money', 'smallmoney') begin
            if isnumeric(@SearchTerm) = 1 begin
                set @where = @where + ' or [' + @column_name + '] = cast(''' + @SearchTerm + ''' as ' + @data_type + ')' -- could also cast the column as varchar for wildcards
            end
        end
        -- Special case for xml
        else if @data_type = 'xml' begin
            set @where = @where + ' or cast([' + @column_name + '] as nvarchar(max)) like ''' + @SearchTerm + ''''
        end
        -- Special case for date
        else if @data_type in ('date', 'datetime', 'datetime2', 'datetimeoffset', 'smalldatetime', 'time') begin
            set @where = @where + ' or convert(nvarchar(50), [' + @column_name + '], 121) like ''' + @SearchTerm + ''''
        end
        -- Search all other types
        else begin
            set @where = @where + ' or [' + @column_name + '] like ''' + @SearchTerm + ''''
        end

        delete from @TabCols where table_schema = @table_schema and table_name = @table_name and column_name = @column_name

    end

    set @run = 'if exists(' + @exists + @where + ') begin ' + @sql + @where + ' print ''' + @table_name + ''' end'
    print @run
    exec sp_executesql @run

end

set nocount off

I don't put it in proc form since I don't want to maintain it across hundreds of DBs and it's really for ad-hoc work anyway. Please feel free to comment on bug-fixes.

Answer 6

Thanks for the really useful script.

You may need to add the following modification to the code if your tables have non-convertable fields:

SET @ColumnName =
    (
        SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
        WHERE       TABLE_SCHEMA    = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
            AND TABLE_NAME  = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
            AND DATA_TYPE NOT IN ('text', 'image', 'ntext')                 
            AND QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
    )

Chris