SET FMTONLY (Transact-SQL)
Returns only metadata to the client. Can be used to test the format of the response without actually running the query.
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Syntax
SET FMTONLY { ON | OFF }
Remarks
No rows are processed or sent to the client because of the request when SET FMTONLY is turned ON.
The setting of SET FMTONLY is set at execute or run time and not at parse time.
Permissions
Requires membership in the public role.
Examples
The following example changes the SET FMTONLY setting to ON and executes a SELECT statement. The setting causes the statement to return the column information only; no rows of data are returned.
USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SET FMTONLY ON;
GO
SELECT *
FROM HumanResources.Employee;
GO
SET FMTONLY OFF;
GO