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View list of databases on SQL Server

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Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

This article describes how to view a list of databases on an instance of SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL.

Permissions

If the caller of sys.databases is not the owner of the database and the database is not master or tempdb, the minimum permissions required to see the corresponding row are ALTER ANY DATABASE or VIEW ANY DATABASE server-level permission, or CREATE DATABASE permission in the master database. The database to which the caller is connected can always be viewed in sys.databases.

Use SQL Server Management Studio

To view a list of databases on an instance of SQL Server

  1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, and then expand that instance.

  2. To see a list of all databases on the instance, expand Databases.

Use Transact-SQL

To view a list of databases on an instance of SQL Server

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, select New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and select Execute. This example returns a list of databases on the instance of SQL Server. The list includes the names of the databases, their database IDs, and the dates when the databases were created.

SELECT name, database_id, create_date
FROM sys.databases;
GO

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