Temporal Table Metadata Views and Functions

Applies to: SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

SQL Server and SQL Database include a number of metabase views and functions to enable administrators to retrieve information about temporal tables.

Information about temporal tables is exposed in the following metadata views:

• sys.tables (Transact-SQL)
• sys.columns (Transact-SQL)
• sys.periods (Transact-SQL)

Information about temporal tables is exposed in the following metadata functions:

• OBJECTPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)

• OBJECTPROPERTYEX (Transact-SQL)

• COLUMNPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)

Next steps

• Temporal Tables
• Getting Started with System-Versioned Temporal Tables
• Temporal Table System Consistency Checks
• Partitioning with Temporal Tables
• Temporal Table Considerations and Limitations
• Temporal Table Security
• Manage Retention of Historical Data in System-Versioned Temporal Tables
• System-Versioned Temporal Tables with Memory-Optimized Tables