How to List Field's Name in table in Access Using SQL

Question

Can you please let me know if it is possible to list all fields name in a MS Access table?

Answer 1

I would like to share this VBA solution, which I did not write, only slightly modified (changed the tableName to use 'SourceTable'). Once it is run you can query the table it creates. It takes advantage of hidden system tables.

Sub GetField2Description()
'************************************************* *********
'Purpose: 1) Deletes and recreates a table (tblFields)
' 2) Queries table MSysObjects to return names of
' all tables in the database
' 3) Populates tblFields
'Coded by: raskew
'Inputs: From debug window:
' Call GetField2Description
'Output: See tblFields
'************************************************* *********
Dim db As DAO.Database, td As TableDef
Dim rs As Recordset, rs2 As Recordset
Dim Test As String, NameHold As String
Dim typehold As String, SizeHold As String
Dim fielddescription As String, tName As String
Dim n As Long, i As Long
Dim fld As Field, strSQL As String
n = 0
Set db = CurrentDb
' Trap for any errors.
On Error Resume Next
tName = "tblFields"
'Does table "tblFields" exist? If true, delete it;
DoCmd.SetWarnings False
DoCmd.DeleteObject acTable, "tblFields"
DoCmd.SetWarnings True
'End If
'Create new tblTable
    db.Execute     "CREATE TABLE tblFields(Object TEXT (55), FieldName TEXT (55),     FieldType TEXT (20), FieldSize Long, FieldAttributes Long, FldDescription TEXT (20));"
strSQL = "SELECT MSysObjects.Name, MSysObjects.Type From MsysObjects WHERE"
strSQL = strSQL + "((MSysObjects.Type)=1)"
strSQL = strSQL + "ORDER BY MSysObjects.Name;"
Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(strSQL)
If Not rs.BOF Then
' Get number of records in recordset
rs.MoveLast
n = rs.RecordCount
rs.MoveFirst
End If
Set rs2 = db.OpenRecordset("tblFields")
For i = 0 To n - 1
fielddescription = " "
Set td = db.TableDefs(i)
'Skip over any MSys objects
If Left(rs!Name, 4) <> "MSys" And Left(rs!Name, 1) <> "~" Then
NameHold = rs!Name
On Error Resume Next
For Each fld In td.Fields
tableName = fld.SourceTable

fielddescription = fld.Name
typehold = FieldType(fld.Type)
SizeHold = fld.Size
rs2.AddNew
rs2!Object = tableName
rs2!FieldName = fielddescription
rs2!FieldType = typehold
rs2!FieldSize = SizeHold
rs2!FieldAttributes = fld.Attributes
rs2!FldDescription = fld.Properties("description")
rs2.Update
Next fld
Resume Next
End If
rs.MoveNext
Next i
rs.Close
rs2.Close
db.Close
End Sub
Function FieldType(intType As Integer) As String
Select Case intType
Case dbBoolean
FieldType = "dbBoolean" '1
Case dbByte
FieldType = "dbByte" '2
Case dbInteger
FieldType = "dbInteger" '3
Case dbLong
FieldType = "dbLong" '4
Case dbCurrency
FieldType = "dbCurrency" '5
Case dbSingle
FieldType = "dbSingle" '6
Case dbDouble
FieldType = "dbDouble" '7
Case dbDate
FieldType = "dbDate" '8
Case dbBinary
FieldType = "dbBinary" '9
Case dbText
FieldType = "dbText" '10
Case dbLongBinary
FieldType = "dbLongBinary" '11
Case dbMemo
FieldType = "dbMemo" '12
Case dbGUID
FieldType = "dbGUID" '15
End Select
End Function

Answer 2

select column_name from information_schema.columns where table_name='table'

Answer 3

This is not SQL, but this question is the top Google result for someone like me who just needs to list out the field names needed for a query to select since Access does not support "* except foo, bar" for getting 99% of a table.

Answer adapted from a social.msdn.com answer by Patrick Wood, Access MVP https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/1fe5546b-db3f-4e17-9bf8-04f4dee233b7/how-to-list-all-the-field-names-in-a-specified-table?forum=accessdev

Change tablename to your name in the module. This Function should be at the global level:

Function ListTdfFields()
    ' NOT doing DIMs, since then you must enable/attach ADODB or DAO
    ' Dim db As ADO.Database
    Set db = CurrentDb
    tablename = "tblProductLicense"  ' <=== YOUR TABLE NAME HERE
    Set tdf = db.TableDefs(tablename)
    For Each fld In tdf.Fields
        Debug.Print tablename; ".["; fld.Name; "]," ; 
        ' remove ending ; for 1 line per field
    Next
    Debug.Print ""
    Set tdf = Nothing
    Set db = Nothing
End Function

Then add a macro RunCode ListTdfFields() and run it. Output will be sent to the Immediate window of the VBA design view for the module.

Answer 4

Give this a go...

    private void Button_OldDDLDump_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string _cnstr = "connectionstringhere";
        OleDbConnection _cn = new OleDbConnection(_cnstr);
        try
        {
            _cn.Open();
            System.Data.DataTable _dt = null;            
            try
            {
                _dt = _cn.GetSchema("tables");
                m_msghelper.AppendArray( DataTableHelper.DataTableToString(_dt) );                               
            }
            catch (Exception _ex)
            {
                System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(_ex.ToString());
            }
            finally
            {
                _dt.Dispose();
            }
        }
        catch (Exception _ex)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(_ex.ToString());
        }
        finally
        {
            _cn.Close();
        }
    }

Helper method to dump the database structure to a string array here..

public static class DataTableHelper
{
    public static string[] DataTableToString( System.Data.DataTable dt )
    {
        List<string> _retval = new List<string>();

        foreach (System.Data.DataRow row in dt.Rows)
        {
            foreach (System.Data.DataColumn col in dt.Columns)
            {
                _retval.Add( string.Format("{0} = {1}", col.ColumnName, row[col]) );
            }
            _retval.Add( "============================");
        }
        return _retval.ToArray();
    }
}

Answer 5

Build query:

SELECT Table_Name.*
FROM Table_Name
WHERE False;

Export to Excel You will have each field name in one row without any data. If you select the row and copy, you can paste special>transpose and have them all in a single column.

Answer 6

There are already some good answers but I decided to add my own twist. Hopefully, they are self-explanatory.

Usage:

• getFieldNames(TableName:="Table1",IncludeBrackets:=True,Delimiter:=vbNewLine,CopyToClipboard:=True)
• getFieldNames(TableName:="Table1",IncludeBrackets:=True,CopyToClipboard:=True)
• getFieldNames(TableName:="Table1",IncludeBrackets:=True)
• getFieldNames(TableName:="Table1")

I use this to build an array of field names:

• Chr(34) & getFieldNames(TableName:="Table1",IncludeBrackets:=False, Delimiter:= Chr(34) & "," & Chr(34)) & Chr(34)

---

Function getFieldNames(ByVal TableName As String, Optional ByVal IncludeBrackets As Boolean, Optional ByVal Delimiter As String = ", ", Optional ByVal CopyToClipboard As Boolean) As String
    Dim rs As DAO.Recordset

    On Error Resume Next
    Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(TableName)
    On Error GoTo 0

    If rs Is Nothing Then Exit Function

    Dim results() As String
    ReDim results(rs.Fields.Count - 1)

    Dim n As Long
    For n = 0 To rs.Fields.Count - 1
        results(n) = rs.Fields(n).Name
    Next
    rs.Close

    Dim result As String
    If IncludeBrackets Then
        result = "[" & Join(results, "]" & Delimiter & "[") & "]"
    Else
        result = Join(results, Delimiter)
    End If


    If CopyToClipboard Then
        With CreateObject("new:{1C3B4210-F441-11CE-B9EA-00AA006B1A69}")
            .SetText result
            .PutInClipboard
        End With
    End If

    getFieldNames = result
End Function