Retrieving Table Column Names

  • Pretty basic question ... I've been researching for hours. All the examples I have found seem to be exclusively for system tables whose columns are in syscolumns.

    How can i get the column names from say table "Employees"...?

  • If you only need to know the column names then why don't you use select * from Employees

  • wpp9786 (2/22/2008)


    Pretty basic question ... I've been researching for hours. All the examples I have found seem to be exclusively for system tables whose columns are in syscolumns.

    How can i get the column names from say table "Employees"...?

    What's wrong with using the sytems tables (or schema views)?

    You could do as Chris suggested. Or you could run sp_help 'Employees', which gives you more than just the column names.

    Or you could do:

    select * from information_schema.columns where table_name = 'Employees'

  • wpp9786 (2/22/2008)


    Pretty basic question ... I've been researching for hours. All the examples I have found seem to be exclusively for system tables whose columns are in syscolumns.

    How can i get the column names from say table "Employees"...?

    Every table's column definitions is tracked in syscolumns (not just system tables). that's its mission in life.

    In 2005, syscolumns is actually a system view (and technically - it's a synonym to the sys.all_columns view). It's not a table.

    Like has been pointed out previously - if you don't like using system views, use the "INFORMATION_SCHEMA" views - that's what they're designed for.

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    Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?

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