How to find columns count of any table in any database from sql server master database?

sql, sql-server

Solution

It may vary slightly depending on the version of SQL Server, but this will work for 2005:

SELECT
     COUNT(*)
FROM
     <database name>.sys.columns
WHERE
     object_id = OBJECT_ID('<database name>.<owner>.<table name>')

In 2000:

SELECT
     COUNT(*)
FROM
     <database name>.sysobjects o
INNER JOIN <database name>.syscolumns c ON
     c.id = o.id
WHERE
     o.name = '<table name>'

If you might have multiple tables with the same exact table name under different owners then you'll need to account for that. I forget the column name in sysobjects to look at off the top of my head.

UPDATE FOR NEWER VERSIONS OF SQL Server and ANSI compliance:

SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM
    <database name>.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE
    TABLE_SCHEMA = '<table schema>' AND
    TABLE_NAME = '<table name>'

Problem

If I know the database-name and table-name, how can I find columns-count of the table from sql server master database? What is the fastest way to find the columns count of any database-table? What do you think about the performance of this query? ``` select count(*) from SYSCOLUMNS where id=(select id from SYSOBJECTS where name='Categories') ``` I need to support sql server 2000 and onwards.

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