Top tip for working with the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views: use Excel to view them.

In Excel, go to Data, Import External Data..., then either Import Data or New Database Query....

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Concerning security, the data for this application is not confidential, in fact it's all a re-hash of data that is publically available anyhow.

There's already been...

I can't tell them anything about how to set up their proxy, unfortunately. This being a government department a) they won't make any changes for me, b) their helpdesk...

Hah! No kidding. You should have seen the frenzy that ensued in the other list!

"book" v "books"... hmmm.

I've just been watching a heated thread in another group about naming conventions. In the past, I've tended to agree with you, that it's all about...

Try this for a trick: use Excel/MS Query to open INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS then use Autofilter to create a simple data dictionary tool that does something very similar to your script.

I'm not writing the front end, just handling the data.  It's an application to store and display taxonomic information about biological species, a bit like ITIS.  The client has specified...

Well, I've already gone with separating out the textual values.  It means that the actual data tables are a bit abstract, but certainly beautifully normalised!

At the moment, this version will...

I've used Visio (uh-huh...), Apex SQLEdit (good for writing SPs etc, so-so for diagramming and so on), Enterprise Architect from Sparx (which I love), EMS SQL Manager for SQL Server...