If it's a regular database, i can simply use this query to get a list of all table names and their column names of the database.
use [my_database_name]
GO
SELECT sys.tables.name AS Table_Name,
sys.columns.name AS Column_Name,
sys.columns.max_length,
(schema_id) As Schema_name
FROM sys.tables
INNER JOIN sys.columns
ON sys.tables.OBJECT_ID=sys.columns.object_id
ORDER BY schema_name, sys.tables.name, sys.columns.name
but right now I need to connect to a linked-server database therefore the 'use' can't be used.
Is there another way?
Fully qualify your linked server in your FROM
and JOIN
, and alias them.
SELECT lst.name AS Table_Name,
lsc.name AS Column_Name,
lsc.max_length,
(schema_id) As Schema_name
FROM [SERVER].[DB].[sys].[tables] lst
INNER JOIN [SERVER].[DB].[sys].[columns] lsc
ON lst.OBJECT_ID=lsc.object_id
ORDER BY schema_name, lst.name, lsc.name
To expand slightly on @scsimon's answer...
The (schema_id) As Schema_name
is not very useful, as it's really an ID. To get the list of all tables (and their columns) with actual schema names one can use:
SELECT s.name AS schema_name
,t.name AS table_Name
,c.name AS column_Name
--,c.max_length
FROM [SERVER].[DB].sys.tables t
JOIN [SERVER].[DB].sys.schemas s ON t.schema_id = s.schema_id
JOIN [SERVER].[DB].sys.columns c ON t.object_id = c.object_id
--WHERE s.name = 'dbo'
ORDER BY s.name, t.name, c.name
There is the solution to list:
declare @temp table
(
col1 varchar(255),
col2 varchar(255),
[name] varchar(255),
[type] varchar(255),
col3 varchar(255)
)
insert @temp exec sp_tables_ex 'Your_LinkedServer_Name'
select * from @temp
And also open a cursor:
DECLARE lstTables CURSOR FOR
select [name] from @temp
The system stored procedure sp_tables is used to list out the tables available in the current database of the current server. You can use sp_tables_ex for the linked server. The following returns list of tables available in the specified Server:
EXEC sp_tables_ex @table_server = 'MYSQL_DB'