SQL Server: Query To List All Tables In A Database

To audit a MSSQL database and its tables, it is common to want the list of tables in the form of a table or an Excel spreadsheet. This SQL query allows you to list all the tables in a SQL Server database and display the number of rows and size for each table. SQL Server developers also often look for tables, for example for impact analysis.

SQL Server tables and system views contain metadata

Thus, all the solutions presented in this article use system tables, such as:

• information_schema.tables
• sys.tables
• sys.indexes
• sys.partitions
• sys.allocation_units
• or sys.schemas

Indeed it is useful to quickly list all the tables for an audit for example, whether it is technical or functional. To begin with, these 3 queries allow you to display the information in different ways.

1. The first is a simple list of tables.
2. Then the second query displays useful information such as the object_id column and the create_date and modify_date.
3. The third query displays the schema, the number of rows and the disk space used by each table.

Display all tables from the system table called Tables

In SQL Server, information_schema.table is a view, not a table. It is one of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views standardised by ISO for relational database management systems (RDBMS). This view provides information about the tables and views present in a database. You can consult it to obtain metadata on these tables and views, such as their names, types (table or view), and other details. For example, you can use the system table information_schema.table, like this:

SELECT *
FROM   information_schema.tables
WHERE  table_type='BASE TABLE';

List of SQL Server tables with a query on the sys.tables view

You can also use the sys.tables system table. The result of the query shows that the table type stored in the [type_desc] column is USER_TABLE. Sys.tables in Transact-SQL is also a system view and not a table. It is part of the SQL Server system catalogue and provides information on all the user tables and system tables that exist in the current database. It can be used to retrieve various details and metadata about tables, such as their name, creation date, modification date and so on. Although it can be queried as a table, do not treat it as an editable user table. Instead, it is a structured view that presents certain system metadata about the tables.

SELECT *
FROM   sys.tables;

Display tables and their sizes from several system tables

The third one is to use multiple SQL Server system tables such as sys.tables, sys.indexes, sys.partitions, sys.allocation_units and sys.schemas. These tables are useful for displaying the list of tables. They are also used to display the number of rows in each table and the disk space used. For example, this query displays all tables with their number of rows sorted in descending order. This query is useful to find the size of the largest tables in a SQL Server database.

SELECT
sch.name AS SCHEMANAME,
tab.name AS TABLENAME,
par.rows AS ROWCOUNTS,
SUM(alc.total_pages) * 8 AS TOTAL_SPACE,
SUM(alc.used_pages) * 8 AS USED_SPACE,
(SUM(alc.total_pages) - SUM(alc.used_pages)) * 8 AS UNUSED_SPACE
FROM sys.tables tabSELECT
	sch.name AS SCHEMANAME,
	tab.name AS TABLENAME,
	par.rows AS ROWCOUNTS,
	SUM(alc.total_pages) * 8 AS TOTAL_SPACE,
	SUM(alc.used_pages) * 8 AS USED_SPACE,
	(SUM(alc.total_pages) - SUM(alc.used_pages)) * 8 AS UNUSED_SPACE
FROM sys.tables tab
	INNER JOIN sys.indexes ind
		ON tab.object_id = ind.object_id
	INNER JOIN sys.partitions par
		ON  ind.object_id = par.object_id
		AND ind.index_id = par.index_id
	INNER JOIN sys.allocation_units alc
		ON par.partition_id = alc.container_id
	LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.schemas sch
		ON tab.schema_id = sch.schema_id
GROUP BY 	tab.name, 
		sch.name, 
		par.rows
ORDER BY par.rows DESC;

Notes

• The keyword “ORDER BY par.rows DESC;” is used to sort the list of SQL Server tables by their number of rows, in a descending order.
• To sort by schema and then by table name, use “ORDER BY 1,2” or “ORDER BY sch.name, tab.name; ” instead.
• The size of the tables is noted in KiloBytes or KB.

This technical MS SQL Server tutorial explains how to create and use a query to list all tables in a given database. If you are still new to SQL Server and want to create a table, here is how to create a SQL Server table and insert a few rows of data. It is possible to display another list of MS SQL tables with more focus on disk space available.