INF: Finding Names of Columns That Comprise the Key of a Table

Last reviewed: April 25, 1997
Article ID: Q48711

The information in this article applies to:

  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2 for OS/2

When writing general purpose applications, it is often necessary to find out the names of the columns that comprise the key of a table. sp_help displays this information, but it is not readily usable inside a program in this format. The information is stored in the keys columns in SYSINDEXES in a highly encoded form. The following is a built-in function for decoding this data into a usable form:

   INDEX_COL( "sysobjects", 2, 1 )

This function will return a text string containing the name of the first column that comprises the second index on sysobjects. It is described in "Microsoft SQL Server Command Reference."

Additional query words: Transact-SQL
Keywords : kbusage SSrvServer
Version : 4.2
Platform : OS/2

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Last reviewed: April 25, 1997
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