Find a string by searching all tables in SQL Server Management Studio 2008

Question

Is there any way to search for a string in all tables of a database in SQL Server Management Studio 2008?

I want to search for string say john. The result should show the tables and their respective rows that contain john.

Answer 1

If you want to use the table variable instead of the temp table, and an ad-hoc query rather than a create procedure. Then use the below code:

QUERY:

USE DATABASE_NAME

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100) = 'SEARCH_TEXT'

DECLARE @Results TABLE (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)

SET  @TableName = ''

SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @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', 'int', 'decimal')

                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 ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM @Results

Note: According to the SQL server instance, it will support table variables. To narrow the search scope USE statement is added in the above code.

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