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.

2

4 Answers

I've just updated my blog post to correct the error in the script that you were having Jeff, you can see the updated script here: Search all fields in SQL Server Database

As requested, here's the script in case you want it but I'd recommend reviewing the blog post as I do update it from time to time

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100) SET @SearchStr = '## YOUR STRING HERE ##'     -- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved. -- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string -- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi -- Site: -- Updated and tested by Tim Gaunt -- -- -- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2010 -- Date modified: 03rd March 2011 19:00 GMT 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', '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   DROP TABLE #Results
16

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
6

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.

1

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