INF: Finding Names of Columns That Comprise the Key of a Table

ID: Q48711

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SQL Server for OS/2, version 4.2

When writing general purpose applications, it is often necessary to find out the names of the columns that comprise the key of a table. sp_help displays this information, but it is not readily usable inside a program in this format. The information is stored in the keys columns in SYSINDEXES in a highly encoded form. The following is a built-in function for decoding this data into a usable form:


   INDEX_COL( "sysobjects", 2, 1 )

This function will return a text string containing the name of the first column that comprises the second index on sysobjects. It is described in "Microsoft SQL Server Command Reference."

Additional query words: Transact-SQL


Keywords          : kbusage SSrvServer 
Version           : 4.2
Platform          : OS/2 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: March 9, 1999