How to get Table Information in SQL Server (Equivalent of Oracle’s desc)

01-06-2012

You can use following stored procedures to get table information similar to what you get by calling “Desc” in Oracle.

Sp_columns ‘<TableName>’

This will show the list of columns along with other useful information such as:

• data type,
• length,
• Is-Nullable,
• etc…

You can also use sp_help ‘<TableName>’

For even more descriptive information This will show column information such as:

• data type,
• length,
• Nullable,
• etc…

In addition this also gives you a wealth of other useful information such as:

• Table creation time,
• Which columns are Row Guid type (if there’s any),
• File group,
• List of indexes working on this table,
• Constraints,
• etc…

Also note that if you call the sp_help without specifying a table name (just use sp_help itself without any parameters) then it will display a wealth of information about your database such as:

• List of tables with their owner and object type,
• List of users,
• etc…

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