Searching and finding a string value for all columns of table in SQL.
Once again this is where T-SQL comes in handy along with the use of system tables or system views. The code below allows you to search for a value in all text data type columns such as (char, nchar, ntext, nvarchar, text and varchar).
The stored procedure gets created in the master database so you can use it in any of your databases and it takes three parameters:
stringToFind - this is the string you are looking for. This could be a simple value as 'test' or you can also use the % wildcard such as '%test%', '%test' or 'test%'.
schema - this is the schema owner of the object
table - this is the table name you want to search, the procedure will search all char, nchar, ntext, nvarchar, text and varchar columns in the table
The first thing you need to do is create this stored procedure by copying the below code and executing it in a query window.
USE master
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE query_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.'
IF CURSOR_STATUS('variable', 'col_cursor') <> -3
BEGIN
CLOSE col_cursor
DEALLOCATE col_cursor
END
END CATCH
Once the stored procedure has been created you can run some tests.
Here are some tests that were done against the QueryHome database.
Find the value 'Irv%' in the Person.Address table.
USE QueryHome
GO
EXEC query_FindStringInTable 'Irv%', 'Person', 'Address'
