Select Columns of a View

Question

I'm attempting to select the column names of a view in a similar way as selecting from information_schema.columns.

I can't seem to find a way to do this. Has anyone else done this before or know if it is even possible?

Answer 1

information_schema.columns.Table_name (at least under Sql Server 2000) includes views, so just use

SELECT * FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name = 'VIEW_NAME'

Answer 2

Try this:

SELECT *
FROM sys.views

This gives you the views as such - if you need the columns, use this:

SELECT * 
FROM sys.columns
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('dbo.YourViewNameHere')

Not sure how you can do it using the INFORMATION_SCHEMA - I never use that, since it feels rather "clunky" and unintuitive, compared to the sys schema catalog views.

See the MSDN docs on the Catalog Views for all the details of all the views available, and what information they might contain.

Answer 3

INFORMATION_SCHEMA views holds metadata about objects within database. INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS uses underlying sys tables to retrive the metadata ( check sp_helptext 'master.Information_schema.columns' ). You can use this simpler query to select column names used in any view.

SELECT col.name 
FROM <db_name>.sys.columns col, <db_name>.sys.views vew
WHERE col.object_id = vew.object_id
AND vew.name = '<view_name>'

Answer 4

I found this way working for views (SQL 2017). I was not able to get data from information_schema.columns and sys.columns:

    SELECT * FROM sys.all_columns WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('<view_name>')

Answer 5

SELECT distinct VIEW_NAME
  ,TABLE_SCHEMA
  ,TABLE_NAME
  ,COLUMN_NAME
FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE
--WHERE  TABLE_SCHEMA = 'Person'
ORDER BY
   VIEW_NAME
  ,TABLE_SCHEMA
  ,TABLE_NAME
  ,COLUMN_NAME

Answer 6

select schema_name(v.schema_id) as schema_name,
   object_name(c.object_id) as view_name,
   c.column_id,
   c.name as column_name,
   type_name(user_type_id) as data_type,
   c.max_length,
   c.precision
from sys.columns c
join sys.views v 
 on v.object_id = c.object_id
order by schema_name,
     view_name,
     column_id;

Answer 7

I needed to create something similar, so I expounded on what Ghost suggested. I needed to create a top 1000 view for every view in a database order by the first ordinal column descending.

SELECT CONCAT (
              'CREATE VIEW dbo.temp_',
              v.name,
              ' AS select top (1000) * from ',
              OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME (v.object_id),
              '.',
              v.name,
              ' ORDER BY [',
              c.COLUMN_NAME,
              '] DESC;'
          ) AS viewName
FROM sys.views AS v
    LEFT OUTER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS c
             ON v.name = c.TABLE_NAME
WHERE c.ORDINAL_POSITION = 1;