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SQL Server FAQ - "sp_help" - Getting a List of Columns in a View

By: FYIcenter.com

(Continued from previous topic...)

How To Get a List of Columns in a View using the "sp_help" Stored Procedure?

Another way to get a list of columns from a view is to use the "sp_help" stored procedure. "sp_help" returns more than just a list of columns. It returns: the view information, the column information, the identity column, the row GUID column. The tutorial exercise belwo shows you what you will get with sp_help:

EXEC SP_HELP fyi_links_top;
GO
Name           Owner  Type  Created_datetime
-------------- ------ ----- -----------------------
fyi_links_top  dbo    view  2007-05-19 13:43:46.983
 
Column_name  Type     Computed  Length  Prec  Scale Nullable
------------ -------- --------- ------- ----- ----- --------
id           int      no        4       10    0     yes     
counts       int      no        4       10    0     yes     
url          varchar  no        80                  no      
 
Identity                   
---------------------------
No identity column defined.

RowGuidCol
-----------------------------
No rowguidcol column defined.

(Continued on next topic...)

1. What Are Views?
2. How To Create a View on an Existing Table?
3. How To See Existing Views?
4. How To Drop Existing Views from a Database?
5. How To Get a List of Columns in a View using "sys.columns"?
6. How To Get a List of Columns in a View using the "sp_columns" Stored Procedure?
7. How To Get a List of Columns in a View using the "sp_help" Stored Procedure?
8. How To Generate CREATE VIEW Script on an Existing View?
9. How To Get the Definition of a View Out of the SQL Server?
10. Can You Create a View with Data from Multiple Tables?
11. Can You Create a View using Data from Another View?
12. What Happens If You Delete a Table That Is Used by a View?
13. Can You Use ORDER BY When Defining a View?
14. How To Modify the Underlying Query of an Existing View?
15. Can You Insert Data into a View?
16. Can You Update Data in a View?
17. Can You Delete Data from a View?
18. How To Assign New Column Names in a View?
19. How Column Data Types Are Determined in a View?
20. How To Bind a View to the Schema of the Underlying Tables?
21. How To Create an Index on a View?