How to Get Column Names from a Microsoft SQL Server Table?

Retrieving Column Names from a Microsoft SQL Server Table

Microsoft SQL Server, like Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, utilizes Information Schema views for efficiently retrieving column names. This approach provides a robust and comprehensive method for accessing table metadata.

To extract the column names from a specific table (e.g., "Customers"), use the following SQL query:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Customers'

This refined query directly returns only the column names, simplifying the output. The original query (SELECT * ...) returned all column attributes. While useful for broader metadata exploration, this streamlined version focuses solely on the requested information.

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA metadata database offers a wealth of information about various database objects, including (but not limited to):

• CHECK_CONSTRAINTS
• COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE
• COLUMN_PRIVILEGES
• COLUMNS
• CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE
• CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE
• DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS
• DOMAINS
• KEY_COLUMN_USAGE
• PARAMETERS
• REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS
• ROUTINES
• ROUTINE_COLUMNS
• SCHEMATA
• TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
• TABLE_PRIVILEGES
• TABLES
• VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE
• VIEW_TABLE_USAGE
• VIEWS

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