sp_tables_ex
Returns table information about the tables from the specified linked server.
Syntax
sp_tables_ex [ @table_server = ] 'table_server'
[ , [ @table_name = ] 'table_name' ]
[ , [ @table_schema = ] 'table_schema' ]
[ , [ @table_catalog = ] 'table_catalog' ]
[ , [ @table_type = ] 'table_type' ]
Arguments
[@table_server =] 'table_server'
Is the name of the linked server for which to return table information. table_server is sysname, with no default.
[,[@table_name =] 'table_name']
Is the name of the table for which to return data type information. table_name is sysname, with a default of NULL.
[@table_schema =] 'table_schema']
Is the table schema. table_schema is sysname, with a default of NULL.
[@table_catalog =] 'table_catalog'
Is the name of the database in which the specified table_name resides. table_catalog is sysname, with a default of NULL.
[@table_type =] 'table_type'
Is the type of the table to return. table_type is sysname, with a default of NULL, and can have one of these values.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| ALIAS | Name of an alias. |
| GLOBAL TEMPORARY | Name of a temporary table available system wide. |
| LOCAL TEMPORARY | Name of a temporary table available only to the current job. |
| SYNONYM | Name of a synonym. |
| SYSTEM TABLE | Name of a system table. |
| TABLE | Name of a user table. |
| VIEW | Name of a view. |
Return Code Values
None
Result Sets
| Column name | Data type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| TABLE_CAT | sysname | Table qualifier name. Various DBMS products support three-part naming for tables (qualifier.owner.name). In SQL Server, this column represents the database name. In some products, it represents the server name of the table's database environment. This field can be NULL. |
| TABLE_SCHEM | sysname | Table owner name. In SQL Server, this column represents the name of the database user who created the table. This field always returns a value. |
| TABLE_NAME | sysname | Table name. This field always returns a value. |
| TABLE_TYPE | varchar(32) | Table, system table, or view. |
| REMARKS | varchar(254) | SQL Server does not return a value for this column. |
Remarks
sp_tables_ex is executed by querying the TABLES rowset of the IDBSchemaRowset interface of the OLE DB provider corresponding to table_server. The table_name, table_schema, table_catalog, and column parameters are passed to this interface to restrict the rows returned.
sp_tables_ex returns an empty result set if the OLE DB provider of the specified linked server does not support the TABLES rowset of the IDBSchemaRowset interface.
Permissions
Execute permission default to the public role.
Examples
This example returns table information about the titles table in the pubs database, on the LONDON2 linked server.
USE master
EXEC sp_tables_ex 'LONDON2', 'titles', 'dbo', 'pubs', NULL