SQL Server: Checking the datatype of a column

Question

How to check if a column in a table has a specific datatype? For example, how to check if a column in SQL Server table is of datatype `char(11)`?

Accepted Answer

```
select COLUMN_NAME 
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where DATA_TYPE = 'char'
and CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH = 11
and TABLE_NAME = 'your_table'
```

using `syscolumns`:

```
SELECT name FROM SYSCOLUMNS
where length = 11
and xtype = 175 --char type
```

Solution