What is the equivalent of 'describe table' in SQL Server?

You can use the sp_columns stored procedure:

exec sp_columns MyTable

There are a few methods to get metadata about a table:

EXEC sp_help tablename

Will return several result sets, describing the table, it's columns and constraints.

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA views will give you the information you want, though unfortunately you have to query the views and join them manually.

Just in case you don't want to use stored proc, here's a simple query version

select * 
  from information_schema.columns 
 where table_name = 'aspnet_Membership'
 order by ordinal_position

The SQL Server equivalent to Oracle's describe command is the stored proc sp_help

The describe command gives you the information about the column names, types, length, etc.

In SQL Server, let's say you want to describe a table 'mytable' in schema 'myschema' in the database 'mydb', you can do following:

USE mydb;
exec sp_help 'myschema.mytable';

try it:

EXEC [ServerName].[DatabaseName].dbo.sp_columns 'TableName'

and you can get some table structure information, such as:

TABLE_QUALIFIER, TABLE_OWNER, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, TYPE_NAME...

In addition to above questions, if we have table in DB like db_name.dbo.table_name, we may use following steps

1. Connect with DB

   USE db_name;

2. Use EXEC sp_help and don't forget to put table name as 'dbo.tablename' if you have dbo as schema.

   exec sp_help 'dbo.table_name'

This should work!

I tried this and it's working for me

exec sp_help TABLE_NAME

I like this format:

name     DataType      Collation             Constraints         PK  FK          Comment

id       int                                 NOT NULL IDENTITY   PK              Order Line Id
pid      int                                 NOT NULL                tbl_orders  Order Id
itemCode varchar(10)   Latin1_General_CI_AS  NOT NULL                            Product Code

So I have used this:

DECLARE @tname varchar(100) = 'yourTableName';

SELECT  col.name,

        CASE typ.name
            WHEN 'nvarchar' THEN 'nvarchar('+CAST((col.max_length / 2) as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'varchar' THEN 'varchar('+CAST(col.max_length as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'char' THEN 'char('+CAST(col.max_length as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'nchar' THEN 'nchar('+CAST((col.max_length / 2) as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'binary' THEN 'binary('+CAST(col.max_length as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'varbinary' THEN 'varbinary('+CAST(col.max_length as varchar)+')'
            WHEN 'numeric' THEN 'numeric('+CAST(col.precision as varchar)+(CASE WHEN col.scale = 0 THEN '' ELSE ','+CAST(col.scale as varchar) END) +')'
            WHEN 'decimal' THEN 'decimal('+CAST(col.precision as varchar)+(CASE WHEN col.scale = 0 THEN '' ELSE ','+CAST(col.scale as varchar) END) +')'
            ELSE typ.name
            END DataType,

        ISNULL(col.collation_name,'') Collation,

        CASE WHEN col.is_nullable = 0 THEN 'NOT NULL ' ELSE '' END + CASE WHEN col.is_identity = 1 THEN 'IDENTITY' ELSE '' END Constraints,

        ISNULL((SELECT 'PK'
                FROM    sys.key_constraints kc INNER JOIN
                        sys.tables tb ON tb.object_id = kc.parent_object_id INNER JOIN
                        sys.indexes si ON si.name = kc.name INNER JOIN
                        sys.index_columns sic ON sic.index_id = si.index_id AND sic.object_id = si.object_id
                WHERE kc.type = 'PK'
                  AND tb.name = @tname
                  AND sic.column_id = col.column_id),'') PK,

        ISNULL((SELECT (SELECT name FROM sys.tables st WHERE st.object_id = fkc.referenced_object_id)
                FROM    sys.foreign_key_columns fkc INNER JOIN
                        sys.columns c ON c.column_id = fkc.parent_column_id AND fkc.parent_object_id = c.object_id INNER JOIN
                        sys.tables t ON t.object_id = c.object_id
                WHERE t.name = tab.name
                  AND c.name = col.name),'') FK,

        ISNULL((SELECT value
                FROM sys.extended_properties
                WHERE major_id = tab.object_id
                  AND minor_id = col.column_id),'') Comment

FROM sys.columns col INNER JOIN
     sys.tables tab ON tab.object_id = col.object_id INNER JOIN
     sys.types typ ON typ.system_type_id = col.system_type_id
WHERE tab.name = @tname
  AND typ.name != 'sysname'
ORDER BY col.column_id;

1. First connect to your DB,

use DB_name

2. Then

exec sp_help 'Production.Et_Issue'

here 'production' is the schema name. If you dont have a schema, you may simply write sp_help table_name

use

SELECT COL_LENGTH('tablename', 'colname')

None of other solution worked for me.

SELECT C.COLUMN_NAME, C.IS_NULLABLE, C.DATA_TYPE, TC.CONSTRAINT_TYPE, C.COLUMN_DEFAULT
    FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS C
    FULL JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE AS CC ON C.COLUMN_NAME = CC.COLUMN_NAME 
    FULL JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS AS TC ON CC.CONSTRAINT_NAME = TC.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE C.TABLE_NAME = '<Table Name>';

Sample Output

If you are using FirstResponderKit from Brent Ozar team, you can run this query also:

exec sp_blitzindex @tablename='MyTable'

It will return all information about table:

• indexes with their usage statistics(reads, writes, locks, etc), space used and other
• missing indexes
• columns
• foreign keys
• statistics contents

Of course it's not a system and not so universal stp like sp_help or sp_columns, but it returns all possible information about your table and I think it's worth creating it at your environment and mentioning it here.

Just double click on the table name and press Alt+F1

The query below will provide similar output as the info() function in python, Pandas library.

USE [Database_Name]

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdo.dob.#primary_key', 'U') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #primary_key

SELECT 
CONS_T.TABLE_CATALOG,
CONS_T.TABLE_SCHEMA,
CONS_T.TABLE_NAME,
CONS_C.COLUMN_NAME,
CONS_T.CONSTRAINT_TYPE,
CONS_T.CONSTRAINT_NAME
INTO  #primary_key
FROM
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS AS CONS_T 
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE AS CONS_C ON CONS_C.CONSTRAINT_NAME= CONS_T.CONSTRAINT_NAME


SELECT
SMA.name AS [Schema Name],
ST.name AS [Table Name],
SC.column_id AS [Column Order],
SC.name AS [Column Name],
PKT.CONSTRAINT_TYPE, 
PKT.CONSTRAINT_NAME, 
SC.system_type_id,
STP.name AS [Data Type],
SC.max_length,
SC.precision, 
SC.scale, 
SC.is_nullable, 
SC.is_masked
FROM sys.tables  AS ST
JOIN sys.schemas AS SMA ON SMA.schema_id = ST.schema_id
JOIN sys.columns AS SC ON SC.object_id = ST.object_id 
JOIN sys.types AS STP ON STP.system_type_id = SC.system_type_id
LEFT JOIN #primary_key AS PKT ON PKT.TABLE_SCHEMA = SMA.name
                                 AND PKT.TABLE_NAME = ST.name
                                 AND PKT.COLUMN_NAME = SC.name
ORDER BY ST.name ASC, SMA.name ASC