SQL – Database Search

We can search the database for a particular value just like searching in table. Here presenting a self-explanatory TSQL query
This query is useful in two ways
1. Wildcard Search i.e. LIKE
2. Exact Search i.e. EQUAL

-- Select Search criteria, If not WILDCARDMATCH, will search for Exact Match 
DECLARE @SEARCHCRETERIA NVARCHAR(1000) = 'WILDCARDMATCH'
-- Enter Searching value 
DECLARE @SEARCH NVARCHAR(1000) = 'Australia' 
DECLARE @ROWCOUNT INT;
DECLARE @COLUMNNAME NVARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @TABLENAME NVARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @STAT NVARCHAR(2000);
DECLARE @TABLE TABLE (
COLUMN_NAME VARCHAR(1000)
,TABLE_NAME VARCHAR(1000)
)
DECLARE @INTABLE TABLE (
COLUMN_NAME VARCHAR(1000)
,TABLE_NAME VARCHAR(1000)
)
DECLARE @RESULTTABLE TABLE (
COLUMN_NAME VARCHAR(1000)
,COLUMN_VALUE VARCHAR(1000)
)

INSERT INTO @TABLE
SELECT '[' + TABLE_CATALOG + '].[' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME + '].[' + COLUMN_NAME + ']' AS 'TargetColumn'
,'[' + TABLE_CATALOG + '].[' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME + ']' AS 'TargetTable'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE DATA_TYPE <> 'XML'

SELECT @ROWCOUNT = COUNT(*)
FROM @TABLE

WHILE (@ROWCOUNT != 0)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO @INTABLE
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM @TABLE

IF (@SEARCHCRETERIA = 'WILDCARDMATCH')
SELECT @STAT = 'SELECT ' + '''' + COLUMN_NAME + '''' + ',' + COLUMN_NAME + ' FROM ' + TABLE_NAME + 
' WHERE CONVERT( VARCHAR,' + COLUMN_NAME + ') LIKE ' + '''%' + @SEARCH + '%'''
FROM @INTABLE
ELSE
SELECT @STAT = 'SELECT ' + '''' + COLUMN_NAME + '''' + ',' + COLUMN_NAME + ' FROM ' + TABLE_NAME + 
' WHERE CONVERT( VARCHAR,' + COLUMN_NAME + ') = ' + '''' + @SEARCH + ''''
FROM @INTABLE

INSERT INTO @RESULTTABLE
EXEC (@STAT)

DELETE
FROM @INTABLE

DELETE TOP (1)
FROM @TABLE

SELECT @ROWCOUNT = COUNT(*)
FROM @TABLE
END

SELECT *
FROM @RESULTTABLE

Points to consider:

1. This code has tested only in SQL 2008/2008 R2 and SQL 2012
2. We couldn’t able to search XML data type columns so excluded XML columns search
3. We could use DISTINCT at final results to avoid any duplicate search results of column values