Still trying to read descriptions for tables, columns, etc from me

[Guest]

the sp_help command doesn't return descriptions as far as I can tell. Any
other ideas?

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[William \(Bill\) Vaughn]

Did you check out the GetSchema method of the ADO.NET Connection class?

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[Guest]

Yes - could not find a description in it either.

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Guest]

Hi,
you can try stored procedure sp_columns_rowset also.
sp_columns_rowset
The sp_columns_rowset stored procedure returns the complete columns
description, including the length, type, name, and so on.

Syntax

sp_columns_rowset table_name [, table_schema ] [, column_name]
where
table_name - is the table name. table_name is sysname.
table_schema - is the table schema. table_schema is sysname,
with a default of NULL.
column_name - is the column name. column_name is sysname,
with a default of NULL.
This is the example:
USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_columns_rowset 'authors'
GO

 

[Guest]

Very strange - it has a Description column but it's null even if there is a
description for the column. Is it possible this is broken?

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

Hi,
you can try stored procedure sp_columns_rowset also.
sp_columns_rowset
The sp_columns_rowset stored procedure returns the complete columns
description, including the length, type, name, and so on.

Syntax

sp_columns_rowset table_name [, table_schema ] [, column_name]
where
table_name - is the table name. table_name is sysname.
table_schema - is the table schema. table_schema is sysname,
with a default of NULL.
column_name - is the column name. column_name is sysname,
with a default of NULL.
This is the example:
USE pubs
GO
EXEC sp_columns_rowset 'authors'
GO
--
If my answer helped you,then please do press Yes below.
Thanks and Regards.
Manish Bafna.
MCP and MCTS.

the sp_help command doesn't return descriptions as far as I can tell. Any
other ideas?

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Paul Clement]

¤ the sp_help command doesn't return descriptions as far as I can tell. Any
¤ other ideas?

See if the following helps:

http://databases.aspfaq.com/schema-...how-the-description-property-of-a-column.html

I don't believe the Description property is supported through the ODBC or OLEDB methods.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

 

[Guest]

Wow - complex but it works. A couple of follow-on questions please:

1) How do I get the description for tables/views/stored procedures?

2) How do I get the version of Sql Server I am hitting? The tables are
different between 2000 and 2005.

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Guest]

One other follow-on question for one of the MS people here. Can you ask the
Sql Server group if this is the correct way to get the description? THis
strikes me as being overly complex for something that should be readily
available.

--
thanks - dave
david_at_windward_dot_net
http://www.windwardreports.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[WenYuan Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Dave,

I think it is because not all Databases(Oracle, My SQL) support Description
property that Ado.net doesn't include Description column in its schema
table. By the way, it seems neither "sp_columns" nor "sp_help" helps in
this scenario.

#1 If you just want to get description property for the special
column/table/sp, you can use fn_listextendedproperty in SQL.
For example:
select value from ::fn_listextendedproperty ('MS_Description', 'user',
'dbo', 'table', 'Table1', 'column', 'Column1')
'MS_Description' is the description property of the column that you are
looking for;
'Table1' is the table name;
'Column1' is the column for which you want the description.
You can look up the syntax and example of this function in SQL server books
online for further details.
This method works both on SQL 2005 and on SQL 2000.

#2 if you want to list all the descriptions of column/table/sp.
I suggest you may follow Paul's suggestion. The document post by Paul is
the right point.
Another option, you may check SMO.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sqlserver.management.smo.
database.extendedproperties.aspx
[Database.ExtendedProperties Property ]
Using SMO, you can get all description property from SQL server(both SQL
2000 and SQL 2005).

I haven't received the reply from product team so far. Anyway I will check
it for you. If I can get any information from there, I will also post it
here.

Sincerely,
Wen Yuan
Microsoft Online Community Support