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sp_tables_ex (Transact-SQL)

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Applies to: SQL Server

Returns table information about the tables from the specified linked server.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

sp_tables_ex
    [ @table_server = ] N'table_server'
    [ , [ @table_name = ] N'table_name' ]
    [ , [ @table_schema = ] N'table_schema' ]
    [ , [ @table_catalog = ] N'table_catalog' ]
    [ , [ @table_type = ] N'table_type' ]
    [ , [ @fUsePattern = ] fUsePattern ]
[ ; ]

Arguments

[ @table_server = ] N'table_server'

The name of the linked server for which to return table information. @table_server is sysname, with no default.

[ @table_name = ] N'table_name'

The name of the table for which to return data type information. @table_name is sysname, with a default of NULL.

[ @table_schema = ] N'table_schema'

The table schema. @table_schema is sysname, with a default of NULL.

[ @table_catalog = ] N'table_catalog'

The name of the database in which the specified table_name resides. @table_catalog is sysname, with a default of NULL.

[ @table_type = ] N'table_type'

The type of the table to return. @table_type is sysname, and can have one of the following 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.
SYSTEM VIEW Name of a system view.
TABLE Name of a user table.
VIEW Name of a view.

[ @fUsePattern = ] fUsePattern

Determines whether the characters _, %, [, and ] are interpreted as wildcard characters. Valid values are 0 (pattern matching is off) and 1 (pattern matching is on). @fUsePattern is bit, with a default of 1.

Return code values

None.

Result set

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 other products, it represents the server name of the database environment of the table. 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 doesn't 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 doesn't support the TABLES rowset of the IDBSchemaRowset interface.

Permissions

Requires SELECT permission on the schema.

Examples

The following example returns information about the tables that are contained in the HumanResources schema in the AdventureWorks2022 database on the LONDON2 linked server.

EXEC sp_tables_ex @table_server = 'LONDON2',
@table_catalog = 'AdventureWorks2022',
@table_schema = 'HumanResources',
@table_type = 'TABLE';

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