How to find a string inside a entire database?

Question

I have one specific string, such as \"123abcd\" for example but I don\'t know the name of the table or even the name of the column inside the table on my SQL Server Database

Answer 1

I usually use information_Schema.columns and information_schema.tables, although like @yuck said, sys.tables and sys.columns are shorter to type.

In a loop, concatenate these

@sql = @sql + 'select' + column_name + 
' from ' + table_name + 
' where ' + column_name ' like ''%''+value+''%' UNION

Then execute the resulting sql.

Answer 2

Common Resource Grep (crgrep) will search for string matches in tables/columns by name or content and supports a number of DBs, including SQLServer, Oracle and others. Full wild-carding and other useful options.

It's opensource (I'm the author).

http://sourceforge.net/projects/crgrep/

Answer 3

I think you have to options:

1. Build a dynamic SQL using sys.tables and sys.columns to perform the search (example here).

2. Use any program that have this function. An example of this is SQL Workbench (free).