Find Which Table(s) Contain a Column and the INFORMATION_SCHEMA Namespace.

To find which table(s) contain the PersonID column try this:

SELECT TABLE_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE COLUMN_NAME LIKE '%PersonID%'

In the AdventureWorks DB this is what you see:


So of course you can search for any column, not just PersonID.

Another interesting tidbit is that any ANSI compliant DBMS provides the INFORMATION_SCHEMA namespaces. From this namespace you have access to the metadata on any DB object. You can look up information on Stored Procedures and Functions using INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES or use any of the many different objects within this namespace: COLUMNS, ROUTINES, CHECK_CONSTRAINTS, PARAMETERS, TABLES, etc.

Enjoy