[sql-server] Search all tables, all columns for a specific value SQL Server

I have a specific value, let's say string 'comments'. I need to find all instances of this in the database as I need to do an update on the format to change it to (*) Comments.

How can I do this? The database is in SQL Server 2000 format.

You could query the sys.tables database view to get out the names of the tables, and then use this query to build yourself another query to do the update on the back of that. For instance:

select 'select * from '+name from sys.tables

will give you a script that will run a select * against all the tables in the system catalog, you could alter the string in the select clause to do your update, as long as you know the column name is the same on all the tables you wish to update, so your script would look something like:

select 'update '+name+' set comments = ''(*)''+comments where comments like ''%comment to be updated%'' ' from sys.tables

You could also then predicate on the tables query to only include tables that have a name in a certain format, or are in a subset you want to create the update script for.

I published one here: FullParam SQL Blog

/* Reto Egeter, fullparam.wordpress.com */

DECLARE @SearchStrTableName nvarchar(255), @SearchStrColumnName nvarchar(255), @SearchStrColumnValue nvarchar(255), @SearchStrInXML bit, @FullRowResult bit, @FullRowResultRows int
SET @SearchStrColumnValue = '%searchthis%' /* use LIKE syntax */
SET @FullRowResult = 1
SET @FullRowResultRows = 3
SET @SearchStrTableName = NULL /* NULL for all tables, uses LIKE syntax */
SET @SearchStrColumnName = NULL /* NULL for all columns, uses LIKE syntax */
SET @SearchStrInXML = 0 /* Searching XML data may be slow */

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Results') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #Results
CREATE TABLE #Results (TableName nvarchar(128), ColumnName nvarchar(128), ColumnValue nvarchar(max),ColumnType nvarchar(20))

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256) = '',@ColumnName nvarchar(128),@ColumnType nvarchar(20), @QuotedSearchStrColumnValue nvarchar(110), @QuotedSearchStrColumnName nvarchar(110)
SET @QuotedSearchStrColumnValue = QUOTENAME(@SearchStrColumnValue,'''')
DECLARE @ColumnNameTable TABLE (COLUMN_NAME nvarchar(128),DATA_TYPE nvarchar(20))

WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
    SET @TableName = 
    (
        SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))
        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
        WHERE       TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
            AND TABLE_NAME LIKE COALESCE(@SearchStrTableName,TABLE_NAME)
            AND QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName
            AND OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)), 'IsMSShipped') = 0
    )
    IF @TableName IS NOT NULL
    BEGIN
        DECLARE @sql VARCHAR(MAX)
        SET @sql = 'SELECT QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME),DATA_TYPE
                FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
                WHERE       TABLE_SCHEMA    = PARSENAME(''' + @TableName + ''', 2)
                AND TABLE_NAME  = PARSENAME(''' + @TableName + ''', 1)
                AND DATA_TYPE IN (' + CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@SearchStrColumnValue,'%',''),'_',''),'[',''),']',''),'-','')) = 1 THEN '''tinyint'',''int'',''smallint'',''bigint'',''numeric'',''decimal'',''smallmoney'',''money'',' ELSE '' END + '''char'',''varchar'',''nchar'',''nvarchar'',''timestamp'',''uniqueidentifier''' + CASE @SearchStrInXML WHEN 1 THEN ',''xml''' ELSE '' END + ')
                AND COLUMN_NAME LIKE COALESCE(' + CASE WHEN @SearchStrColumnName IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE '''' + @SearchStrColumnName + '''' END  + ',COLUMN_NAME)'
        INSERT INTO @ColumnNameTable
        EXEC (@sql)
        WHILE EXISTS (SELECT TOP 1 COLUMN_NAME FROM @ColumnNameTable)
        BEGIN
            PRINT @ColumnName
            SELECT TOP 1 @ColumnName = COLUMN_NAME,@ColumnType = DATA_TYPE FROM @ColumnNameTable
            SET @sql = 'SELECT ''' + @TableName + ''',''' + @ColumnName + ''',' + CASE @ColumnType WHEN 'xml' THEN 'LEFT(CAST(' + @ColumnName + ' AS nvarchar(MAX)), 4096),''' 
            WHEN 'timestamp' THEN 'master.dbo.fn_varbintohexstr('+ @ColumnName + '),'''
            ELSE 'LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 4096),''' END + @ColumnType + ''' 
                    FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
                    ' WHERE ' + CASE @ColumnType WHEN 'xml' THEN 'CAST(' + @ColumnName + ' AS nvarchar(MAX))' 
                    WHEN 'timestamp' THEN 'master.dbo.fn_varbintohexstr('+ @ColumnName + ')'
                    ELSE @ColumnName END + ' LIKE ' + @QuotedSearchStrColumnValue
            INSERT INTO #Results
            EXEC(@sql)
            IF @@ROWCOUNT > 0 IF @FullRowResult = 1 
            BEGIN
                SET @sql = 'SELECT TOP ' + CAST(@FullRowResultRows AS VARCHAR(3)) + ' ''' + @TableName + ''' AS [TableFound],''' + @ColumnName + ''' AS [ColumnFound],''FullRow>'' AS [FullRow>],*' +
                    ' FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
                    ' WHERE ' + CASE @ColumnType WHEN 'xml' THEN 'CAST(' + @ColumnName + ' AS nvarchar(MAX))' 
                    WHEN 'timestamp' THEN 'master.dbo.fn_varbintohexstr('+ @ColumnName + ')'
                    ELSE @ColumnName END + ' LIKE ' + @QuotedSearchStrColumnValue
                EXEC(@sql)
            END
            DELETE FROM @ColumnNameTable WHERE COLUMN_NAME = @ColumnName
        END 
    END
END
SET NOCOUNT OFF

SELECT TableName, ColumnName, ColumnValue, ColumnType, COUNT(*) AS Count FROM #Results
GROUP BY TableName, ColumnName, ColumnValue, ColumnType

The below Query works but very slow... copied from vyaskn.tripod.com

Declare @SearchStr nvarchar(100)

SET  @SearchStr='Search String' BEGIN

CREATE TABLE #Results (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')
      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 END