sp_tables (Transact-SQL)

Syntax

sp_tables [ [ @table_name= ] 'name' ] 
     [ , [ @table_owner= ] 'owner' ] 
     [ , [ @table_qualifier= ] 'qualifier' ] 
     [ , [ @table_type= ] "type" ] 
     [ , [@fUsePattern = ] 'fUsePattern'];

Arguments

• [ @table_name= ] 'name'
  Is the table or view used to return catalog information. name is nvarchar(384), with a default of NULL. Wildcard pattern matching is supported.

• [ @table_owner= ] 'owner'
  Is the table owner of the table used to return catalog information. owner is nvarchar(384), with a default of NULL. Wildcard pattern matching is supported. If the owner is not specified, the default table visibility rules of the underlying DBMS apply.

  In SQL Server, if the current user owns a table with the specified name, the columns of that table are returned. If the owner is not specified and the current user does not own a table with the specified name, this procedure looks for a table with the specified name owned by the database owner. If one exists, the columns of that table are returned.

• [ @table_qualifier= ] 'qualifier'
  Is the name of the table qualifier. qualifier is sysname, with a default of NULL. Various DBMS products support three-part naming for tables (qualifier**.owner.**name). In SQL Server, this column represents the database name. In some products, it represents the server name of the table's database environment.

• [ , [ @table_type= ] "'type', 'type'" ]
  Is a list of values, separated by commas, that gives information about all tables of the table types that are specified. These include TABLE, SYSTEMTABLE, and VIEW. type is varchar(100), with a default of NULL.

  Note

  Single quotation marks must enclose each table type, and double quotation marks must enclose the whole parameter. Table types must be uppercase. If SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER is ON, each single quotation mark must be doubled and the whole parameter must be enclosed in single quotation marks.

• [ @fUsePattern = ] 'fUsePattern'
  Determines whether the underscore ( _ ), percent ( % ), and bracket ( [ or ] ) characters are interpreted as wildcard characters. Valid values are 0 (pattern matching is off) and 1 (pattern matching is on). fUsePattern is bit, with a default of 1.

Return Code Values

None

Result Sets

Remarks

For maximum interoperability, the gateway client should assume only SQL-92-standard SQL pattern matching (the % and _ wildcard characters).

Privilege information about the current user's read or write access to a specific table is not always checked. Therefore access is not guaranteed. This result set includes not only tables and views, but also synonyms and aliases for gateways to DBMS products that support those types. If the server attribute ACCESSIBLE_TABLES is Y in the result set for sp_server_info, only tables that can be accessed by the current user are returned.

sp_tables is equivalent to SQLTables in ODBC. The results returned are ordered by TABLE_TYPE, TABLE_QUALIFIER, TABLE_OWNER, and TABLE_NAME.

Permissions

Requires SELECT permission on the schema.

Examples

A. Returning a list of objects that can be queried in the current environment

EXEC sp_tables ;

B. Returning information about the tables in a database

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
EXEC sp_tables 
   @table_name = '%',
   @table_owner = 'Person',
   @table_qualifier = 'AdventureWorks2008R2';

See Also

Reference