How to Search for a String in All Tables in a Database

If you want to look where a string is in all tables in a database, how do you do that?

Here’s a very helpful SQL to run:

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100)
SET @SearchStr = '## YOUR STRING HERE ##'

-- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved.
-- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string
-- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi
-- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com
-- Updated and tested by Tim Gaunt
-- http://www.thesitedoctor.co.uk
-- http://blogs.thesitedoctor.co.uk/tim/2010/02/19/Search+Every+Table+And+Field+In+A+SQL+Server+Database+Updated.aspx
-- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2010
-- Date modified: 03rd March 2011 19:00 GMT
CREATE TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))
 
SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)
SET  @TableName = ''
SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')
 
WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL

BEGIN
  SET @ColumnName = ''
  SET @TableName = 
  (
    SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)) 
    FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
    WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
    AND QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName AND OBJECTPROPERTY(
      OBJECT_ID(
        QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)
      ), 'IsMSShipped'
    ) = 0
  )

  WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL)
         
  BEGIN
    SET @ColumnName =
    (
      SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
      FRO M INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
      WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
        AND TABLE_NAME = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
        AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar'
          , 'nvarchar', 'int', 'decimal')
        AND QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
    )
 
    IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL
         
    BEGIN
      INSERT INTO #Results
      EXEC
      (
        'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', 
        LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) 
        FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
        ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
      )
    END
  END   
END
 
SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results
 
DROP TABLE #Results

Further Reading

How to Get Names of All Tables in SQL Server
How to Find a Column Name in SQL Server Database
Search all tables, all columns for a specific value SQL Server