Knowledgebase

If you want to search in for a specific value in all columns of a Microsoft SQL Server Database, you can use the following T-SQL stored procedure:

CREATE PROC SearchAllTables(  
        @SearchStr nvarchar(100)  
 ) AS  
 BEGIN  
        CREATE TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))  
        SET NOCOUNT ON  
        DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)  
        SET  @TableName = ''  
        SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')  
   
        WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL  
        BEGIN  
                SET @ColumnName = ''  
                SET @TableName =  
                (  
                        SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))  
                        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES  
                        WHERE           TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'  
                                AND     QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName  
                                AND     OBJECTPROPERTY(  
                                                OBJECT_ID(  
                                                        QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)  
                                                         ), 'IsMSShipped'  
                                                       ) = 0  
                )  
                WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL)  
                BEGIN  
                        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 IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')  
                                        AND     QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName  
                        )  
                        IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL  
                        BEGIN  
                                INSERT INTO #Results  
                                EXEC  
                                (  
                                        'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630)  
                                        FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +  
                                        ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2  
                                )  
                        END  
                END  
        END  
        SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results  
        drop table #Results
 END