How do I return the SQL data types from my query?

Question

I\'ve a SQL query that queries an enormous (as in, hundreds of views/tables with hard-to-read names like CMM-CPP-FAP-ADD) database that I don\'t need nor want to understand. Th

Answer 1

I use a simple case statement to render results I can use in technical specification documents. This example does not contain every condition you will run into with a database, but it gives you a good template to work with.

SELECT
     TABLE_NAME          AS 'Table Name',
     COLUMN_NAME         AS 'Column Name',
     CASE WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%char'
          THEN DATA_TYPE + '(' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH) + ')'
          WHEN DATA_TYPE IN ('bit', 'int', 'smallint', 'date')
          THEN DATA_TYPE
          WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'datetime'
          THEN DATA_TYPE + '(' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, DATETIME_PRECISION) + ')'
          WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'float'
          THEN DATA_TYPE
          WHEN DATA_TYPE IN ('numeric', 'money')
          THEN DATA_TYPE + '(' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, NUMERIC_PRECISION) + ', ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX) + ')'
     END                 AS 'Data Type',
     CASE WHEN IS_NULLABLE = 'NO'
          THEN 'NOT NULL'
          ELSE 'NULL'
     END                 AS 'PK/LK/NOT NULL'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
ORDER BY 
     TABLE_NAME, ORDINAL_POSITION