Search all columns of a table for a value?

Question

I\'ve looked for an answer to this, but all I can find is people asking how to search all columns of ALL tables in a database for a value. I just want to search all columns

Answer 1

Just use some third party tool. There are several that are 100% free and you can’t go wrong with any of these because they will save you a ton of time.

ApexSQL Search (searches both schema and data), SSMS Toolpack (searches schema and data but not free for SQL Server 2012), SQL Search (searches data only).

Frankly, I don’t really understand why even very experienced DBAs bother writing scripts for this if they can use some tool for free that will do the job.

Answer 2

I have no idea of the column types or data values you're searching for, but I'd guess you're trying to search for a substring among multiple text columns.

This is a job for Full-Text Search.

Don't waste time with LIKE '%' + @SearchStr + '%'. You have to write a lot of complicated code to support it, and that solution won't perform well anyway.

Answer 3

I have come across this issue, normally after uploading data from a CSV file where I had to modify the commas ',' in text fields so the data would load properly & once in SQL Server, the need comes to change the modified character back to a comma & it's helpful to be able to search the entire table. Greg Robidoux at mssqltips has posted a Stored Procedure that does just this, searches the Columns of a specified Table for a particular String value. You can find it along with a SPROC that does not use the cursor & more details here:

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1522/searching-and-finding-a-string-value-in-all-columns-in-a-sql-server-table/

I have posted the original SPROC below:

USE master 
GO 

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.sp_FindStringInTable @stringToFind VARCHAR(100), @schema sysname, @table sysname 
AS 

DECLARE @sqlCommand VARCHAR(8000) 
DECLARE @where VARCHAR(8000) 
DECLARE @columnName sysname 
DECLARE @cursor VARCHAR(8000) 

BEGIN TRY 
   SET @sqlCommand = 'SELECT * FROM [' + @schema + '].[' + @table + '] WHERE' 
   SET @where = '' 

   SET @cursor = 'DECLARE col_cursor CURSOR FOR SELECT COLUMN_NAME 
   FROM ' + DB_NAME() + '.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
   WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = ''' + @schema + ''' 
   AND TABLE_NAME = ''' + @table + ''' 
   AND DATA_TYPE IN (''char'',''nchar'',''ntext'',''nvarchar'',''text'',''varchar'')' 

   EXEC (@cursor) 

   OPEN col_cursor    
   FETCH NEXT FROM col_cursor INTO @columnName    

   WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0    
   BEGIN    
       IF @where <> '' 
           SET @where = @where + ' OR' 

       SET @where = @where + ' [' + @columnName + '] LIKE ''' + @stringToFind + '''' 
       FETCH NEXT FROM col_cursor INTO @columnName    
   END    

   CLOSE col_cursor    
   DEALLOCATE col_cursor  

   SET @sqlCommand = @sqlCommand + @where 
   PRINT @sqlCommand 
   EXEC (@sqlCommand)  
END TRY 
BEGIN CATCH 
   PRINT 'There was an error. Check to make sure object exists.'
   PRINT error_message()

   IF CURSOR_STATUS('variable', 'col_cursor') <> -3 
   BEGIN 
       CLOSE col_cursor    
       DEALLOCATE col_cursor  
   END 
END CATCH 

Answer 4

This sounds like you just want to know which table and column some data is stored, not that you want to know that during the execution of your code, or change it. I also had this problem and this solved it:

Download your database in SQL format (using phpmyadmin, for example), open it with a text editor and search for the occurrences you want.

Answer 5

In a similar question I mentioned SQL Workbench/J.

The command that searches the database can also be limited to just one table. So even if that question was PostgreSQL specific, the tool works for SQL Server as well as far as I know.

Answer 6

I've found the best answer is just to select * from the table and then copy & paste into Excel and hit Ctrl+F