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

-- exec pSearchAllTables 'M54*'

ALTER PROC pSearchAllTables (@SearchStr NVARCHAR(100))
AS
BEGIN
    -- A procedure to search all tables in a database for a value
    -- Note: Use * or % for wildcard

    DECLARE 
        @Results TABLE([Schema.Table.ColumnName] NVARCHAR(370), ColumnValue NVARCHAR(3630))

    SET NOCOUNT ON

    DECLARE 
        @TableName NVARCHAR(256) = ''
        , @ColumnName NVARCHAR(128)     
        , @SearchStr2 NVARCHAR(110) = QUOTENAME(REPLACE(@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 
        [Schema.Table.ColumnName]
        , ColumnValue 
    FROM @Results
    GROUP BY 
        [Schema.Table.ColumnName]
        , ColumnValue 

END