How can I get column names from a table in SQL Server?

Question

I want to query the name of all columns of a table. I found how to do this in:

• Oracle
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL

But I also need to know:

Answer 1

Just run this command

EXEC sp_columns 'Your Table Name'

Answer 2

SELECT TOP (0) [toID]
      ,[sourceID]
      ,[name]
      ,[address]
  FROM [ReportDatabase].[Ticket].[To]

Simple and doesnt require any sys tables

Answer 3

You can try this.This gives all the column names with their respective data types.

desc <TABLE NAME> ;

Answer 4

You can obtain this information and much, much more by querying the Information Schema views.

This sample query:

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Customers'

Can be made over all these DB objects:

• CHECK_CONSTRAINTS
• COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE
• COLUMN_PRIVILEGES
• COLUMNS
• CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE
• CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE
• DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS
• DOMAINS
• KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
• PARAMETERS
• REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS
• ROUTINES
• ROUTINE_COLUMNS
• SCHEMATA
• TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
• TABLE_PRIVILEGES
• TABLES
• VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE
• VIEW_TABLE_USAGE
• VIEWS

Answer 5

You can use sp_help in SQL Server 2008.

sp_help <table_name>;

Keyboard shortcut for the above command: select table name (i.e highlight it) and press ALT+F1.

Answer 6

Some SQL Generating SQL:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS test;
CREATE TABLE test (
  col001 INTEGER
, col002 INTEGER
, col003 INTEGER
, col004 INTEGER
, col005 INTEGER
, col006 INTEGER
, col007 INTEGER
, col008 INTEGER
, col009 INTEGER
, col010 INTEGER
)
;
INSERT INTO test(col001) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col002) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col005) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test(col009) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO test VALUES (NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL);

SELECT
  CASE ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ordinal_position)
  WHEN 1 THEN 
    'SELECT'+CHAR(10)+'  *'+CHAR(10)+'FROM test'
   +CHAR(10)+'WHERE '
  ELSE
    '   OR '
  END
+ column_name +' IS NOT NULL'
+ CASE ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ordinal_position DESC)
  WHEN 1 THEN 
    CHAR(10)+';'
  ELSE
    ''
  END
  FROM information_schema.columns
  WHERE table_schema='dbo'
    AND table_name = 'test'
ORDER BY
  ordinal_position;

-- the whole scenario. Works for 10 , will work for 100, too:

-- out -----------------------------------------------
-- out  SELECT
-- out   *
-- out FROM test
-- out WHERE col001 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col002 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col003 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col004 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col005 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col006 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col007 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col008 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col009 IS NOT NULL
-- out     OR col010 IS NOT NULL
-- out ;