Find a piece of text in any column in any table in a SQL Server database

find-text-in-database.sql

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar (100)
SET @SearchStr = 'string to find'

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))
            FROM     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