What is DESCRIBE command in SQL Server?

What is its purpose?How to use it?
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suji  

  • Member Since Sep-2005 | Nov 5th, 2011

Here are multiple ways to get the table information. The DESCRIBE command does not exist in MS SQL SERVER. This is an Oracle command used to describe the structure of objects within a given database. To achieve the same task in MSSQL Server, there are a series of stored procedures with the prefix SP_ that can be used. To view the structure of a table within the current database, use the command 

Code
  1. sp_help 'TABLE_NAME';
If you would like to see more details, Create your custom procedure 
Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'order'
Here is another alternative way to get the same information 
Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'TableName''Employee'
Here is the usage : 
Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'Department''sa''TableName'
Contributors for the editorial answer : Kewlshiva, srilakshmi.b, raaghav,kevaburg

Showing Answers 1 - 20 of 20 Answers

acp3012

  • Sep 17th, 2006
 

DESCRIBE is not a SQL Server Command. This a command used in ORACLE & MYSQL to display the sturcture of a Table.

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Lehman

  • Sep 19th, 2006
 

What is the command in SQL Server to display the structure of the table?

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Anu

  • Sep 20th, 2006
 

Suppose if u want to get the structure of table categories

use the following command in sql server

sp_columns categories

This will work.. Like wise if u want to see the list of tables in ur database, use

sp_tables

 

Regards,

Anu

 

Rajneesh Kaur

  • Dec 13th, 2006
 

DESCRIBE command is used to view the structure of a table..

Eg. a table named employee and we want to see the structure of a table then we will use command as:

DESC employee

This will display whole structure of employee table.

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Kewlshiva

  • Mar 26th, 2008
 

you can get the same type of results in SQL SERVER also using the following Stored Proc

CREATE  procedure describe
(
 @tablename varchar(256)
)
as
begin
SELECT distinct sCols.colid as 'order', sCols.name, sTyps.name, sCols.length
FROM [syscolumns] sCols
 INNER JOIN [systypes] sTyps ON sCols.xtype = sTyps.xtype
 INNER JOIN [sysobjects] sObjs ON sObjs.id = sCols.[id]
  and UPPER(sObjs.name) = UPPER(@tablename)
order by sCols.colid
end

raaghav

  • Dec 9th, 2010
 

Use the Following Code to Get the Structure or Description of the Table in SQL Server. 


sp_columns 'TableName' (e.g. sp_columns 'Employee') 


or 


SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'TableName'
(e.g.
SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'Employee'
)


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kevaburg

  • May 1st, 2011
 

The DESCRIBE command does not exist in MS SQL SERVER.  This is an Oracle command used to describe the structure of objects within a given database.

To achieve the same task in MSSQL Server, there are a series of stored procedures with the prefix SP_ that can be used.  In your case, to view the structure of a table within the current database, use the command sp_help 'TABLE_NAME';

Hope this helps!

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suji

  • Nov 5th, 2011
 

Here are multiple ways to get the table information.

The DESCRIBE command does not exist in MS SQL SERVER. This is an Oracle command used to describe the structure of objects within a given database. To achieve the same task in MSSQL Server, there are a series of stored procedures with the prefix SP_ that can be used.

To view the structure of a table within the current database,

use the command 

Code
  1. sp_help 'TABLE_NAME';


If you would like to see more details, Create your custom procedure 
Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'order'



Here is another alternative way to get the same information

Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'TableName''Employee'




Here is the usage : 

Code
  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'Department''sa''TableName'


Contributors for the editorial answer : Kewlshiva, srilakshmi.b, raaghav,kevaburg

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Nirav

  • Dec 29th, 2011
 

This will give you the best information of your table in SQL Server. Like Name of Table, Column Name, Identity, Row Guid Col, Data Located On Filegroup, Index Name and Constraint Type.

EXECUTE sp_help 

Code
  1.  

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gangireddy

  • Feb 22nd, 2012
 

To see the structure (description ) of the table in Sql Server the followed command surely works....
sp_help person

Note:***
to display the structure of the table in Sql Server wer use the followed command ...it has the accurate rating ****
sp_help
sp_help person

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Saket Kale

  • Oct 24th, 2012
 

sp_help dbo.customers;

worked for me just fine.

Thanks to the OP, this runs perfectly on SQL 2008 R2, do not know about other versions

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Rooshi

  • Oct 17th, 2014
 

sp_help will give all the details about the table columns, indexes, partitions etc.

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