Search an entire database for some text

search_all_data.sql

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100)
SET @SearchStr = 'Text to find'

-- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved.
-- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string
-- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi
-- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com
-- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000
-- Date modified: 28th July 2002 22:50 GMT

DECLARE @Results TABLE(ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)
SET  @TableName = ''
SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')

WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
    SET @ColumnName = ''
    SET @TableName = 
    (
        SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))
        FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
        WHERE       TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
            AND QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName
            AND OBJECTPROPERTY(
                    OBJECT_ID(
                        QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)
                         ), 'IsMSShipped'
                           ) = 0
    )

    WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL)
    BEGIN
        SET @ColumnName =
        (
            SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
            FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
            WHERE       TABLE_SCHEMA    = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
                AND TABLE_NAME  = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
                AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')
                AND QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
        )

        IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO @Results
            EXEC
            (
                'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) 
                FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
                ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
            )
        END
    END 
END

SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM @Results