Returns only metadata to the client.
SET FMTONLY {ON | OFF}
No rows are processed or sent to the client as a result 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.
SET FMTONLY permissions default to all users.
This 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.
SET FMTONLY ON
GO
USE pubs
GO
SELECT *
FROM pubs.dbo.authors
GO
| SET |