How can I get column names from a table in SQL Server?

Question

I want to query the name of all columns of a table. I found how to do this in:

• Oracle
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL

But I also need to know: how can this be done in Microsoft SQL Server (2008 in my case)?

Answer 1

You can obtain this information and much, much more by querying the Information Schema views.

This sample query:

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Customers'

Can be made over all these DB objects:

• CHECK_CONSTRAINTS
• COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE
• COLUMN_PRIVILEGES
• COLUMNS
• CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE
• CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE
• DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS
• DOMAINS
• KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
• PARAMETERS
• REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS
• ROUTINES
• ROUTINE_COLUMNS
• SCHEMATA
• TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
• TABLE_PRIVILEGES
• TABLES
• VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE
• VIEW_TABLE_USAGE
• VIEWS