MS SQL Server Interview Question:

How To Get a List of Columns in a View using the "sp_help" Stored Procedure?

Submitted by: Administrator

Another way to get a list of columns from a view is to use the "sp_help" stored procedure. "sp_help" returns more than just a list of columns. It returns: the view information, the column information, the identity column, the row GUID column. The tutorial exercise belwo shows you what you will get with sp_help:

EXEC SP_HELP ggl_links_top;
GO
<pre>Name Owner Type Created_datetime
-------------- ------ ----- -----------------------
ggl_links_top dbo view 2007-05-19 13:43:46.983

Column_name Type Computed Length Prec Scale Nullable
------------ -------- --------- ------- ----- ----- --------
id int no 4 10 0 yes
counts int no 4 10 0 yes
url varchar no 80 no

Identity
---------------------------
No identity column defined.

RowGuidCol
-----------------------------
No rowguidcol column defined.</pre>
Submitted by: Administrator