Anyone Know of Some Desktop Software that Searches an SQL server for a String

Question

I have a database on a server that's running Microsoft SQL. I would like to find a tool that logs into that server, allows me to search to a string, and returns the tables and fields that contain that string. I"m not a programmer, nor do I know SQL. I saw someone using free desktop software that does this, but I've come to a Google dead-end. Does anyone know a software product that does this?

I don't think monitoring software is what I'm looking for. I might be wrong, but when I look at those products (RedGate, etc), they seem like overkill.

Answer 1

Step 1: Download SSMS LINK

Step 2: Download Red Gate SQL Search LINK

Step 3: Install both

Step 4: Connect to your database server

Step 5: Search!

Answer 2

If you're okay with using a script through SSMS the script below will search through user tables for a certain string. In a system with a lot of tables and columns it will take a long time. :)

set nocount on

declare
    @TableName varchar (100)
    ,@ColumnName varchar (100)
    ,@TableSchema varchar (100)
    ,@min int
    ,@max int
    ,@sql nvarchar (4000)
    ,@string varchar (2000)
    ,@SummaryLevel int

--  search criteria
--      @string fro string to be searched in all relevant fields in all tables
--      @SummaryLevel 0 for detailed results, 1 for search hit count by table
select
    @string = '<the string you want to search for>'
    ,@SummaryLevel = 1

create table #cols (
    colsId int identity (1,1) primary key
    ,TableName varchar (100)
    ,TableSchema varchar (100)
    ,ColumnName varchar (100)
)

create table #results (
    resultsId int identity (1,1) primary key
    ,TableName varchar (100)
    ,ColumnName varchar (100)
    ,ColumnValue varchar (4000)
    ,SummaryLevel int
)

insert into #cols ( TableName, TableSchema, ColumnName )
select
    T.TABLE_NAME
    ,T.TABLE_SCHEMA
    ,C.COLUMN_NAME