search and replace a string in all user tables’ data in all databases

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item search and replace a string in all user tables’ data in all databases

  • Hi,

    Nice SP.

    Thank you.

    It seems that it does not handle very well the schema names other than dbo.

    Ex.

    Invalid object name 'AdventureWorks.dbo.Location'.

    Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    The 'Location' table has 'Production' as schema and not 'dbo'

    Cheers,

    A.

  • Thanks for pointing out this..:-)

    I have made some changes in the script to handle this. Please check out the modified script..

    ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_ReplaceString]

    (

    @FindString varchar(100),

    @ReplaceString varchar(100)

    )

    AS

    BEGIN

    SET NOCOUNT ON

    CREATE TABLE #FilteredTables(DatabaseID int,DatabaseName varchar(255),SchemaName varchar(255), TableName varchar(255),ColumnName varchar(128))

    CREATE TABLE #AllDbTables(DatabaseID int,DatabaseName varchar(255),SchemaName varchar(255),TableName varchar(255),TableId int)

    CREATE TABLE #AllDbTableColumns(DatabaseID int,DatabaseName varchar(255),SchemaName varchar(255),TableName varchar(255),ColumnName varchar(128))

    DECLARE @DatabaseName nvarchar(255),@DatabaseID int,@TableName nvarchar(255), @ColumnName nvarchar(128),@cmd nvarchar(4000),@ErrorMsg varchar(4000),

    @WhrFindString varchar(100),@TableId int,@Id int, @SchemaName varchar(255)

    SET @WhrFindString = QUOTENAME('%' + @FindString + '%','''')

    SET @cmd = ''

    SET @Id = 0

    -- Get tables from all the databases

    DECLARE cur_Databases CURSOR FOR

    SELECT QUOTENAME(name),database_id FROM sys.databases where name not in ('master','tempdb','model','msdb','ReportServer','ReportServerTempDB')

    OPEN cur_Databases

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Databases INTO @DatabaseName,@DatabaseID

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    SET @cmd = 'insert into #AllDbTables select '''+cast(@DatabaseID as varchar)+''','''+@DatabaseName+''', QUOTENAME(SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id)), QUOTENAME(name)as TableName, object_id as TableID from '+@DatabaseName+'.sys.objects where type = ''u'' and is_ms_shipped = 0'

    EXEC(@cmd)

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Databases into @DatabaseName,@DatabaseID

    END

    CLOSE cur_Databases

    DEALLOCATE cur_Databases

    --Get columns for tables from all databases

    DECLARE cur_Columns CURSOR FOR

    SELECT DatabaseId,DatabaseName,SchemaName, TableName,TableID FROM #AllDbTables

    OPEN cur_Columns

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Columns INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@TableID

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    set @cmd = 'insert into #AllDbTableColumns select '''+cast(@DatabaseId as varchar)+''','''+@DatabaseName+''','''+@SchemaName+''','''+@TableName+''',QUOTENAME(name) FROM '+@DatabaseName+'.sys.columns WHERE object_id = '+cast(@TableID as varchar)+' AND system_type_id IN (167, 175, 231, 239, 35)'

    exec(@cmd)

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Columns INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@TableID

    end

    CLOSE cur_Columns

    DEALLOCATE cur_Columns

    --Get table columns for only the String match

    DECLARE cur_Filtered CURSOR FOR

    SELECT DatabaseId,DatabaseName,SchemaName, TableName,ColumnName FROM #AllDbTableColumns

    OPEN cur_Filtered

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Filtered INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    -- Get only those tables and the particular column for which the match has found and inserts these details in temp table.

    SET @cmd = 'IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM '+ @DatabaseName+'.'+@SchemaName+'.'+@TableName + ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ''%' + @FindString + '%'') insert into #FilteredTables select '''+cast(@DatabaseId as varchar)+''','''+@DatabaseName+''',''' + @SchemaName+''','''+@TableName + ''', ''' + @ColumnName + ''''

    EXEC(@cmd)

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Filtered INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    END

    CLOSE cur_Filtered

    DEALLOCATE cur_Filtered

    SET @cmd = ''

    IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM #FilteredTables)

    BEGIN

    --- Cursor for creating update statement for the tables filtered above.

    DECLARE cur_Replace CURSOR FOR

    SELECT DatabaseId,DatabaseName,SchemaName, TableName,ColumnName FROM #FilteredTables

    OPEN cur_Replace

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Replace INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    SET @cmd = ' UPDATE ' + @SchemaName+'.'+@TableName +

    ' SET ' + @ColumnName

    + ' = REPLACE(' + @ColumnName + ', '

    + QUOTENAME(@FindString, '''') + ', ' + QUOTENAME(@ReplaceString, '''') +

    ') WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @WhrFindString +CHAR(13)+';'

    if(@Id != @DatabaseId)

    begin

    SET @cmd = 'USE '+@DatabaseName+';'+char(13)+@cmd+char(13)

    end

    PRINT @cmd

    SET @Id = @DatabaseId

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Replace INTO @DatabaseId,@DatabaseName,@SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    END

    CLOSE cur_Replace

    DEALLOCATE cur_Replace

    END

    ELSE

    BEGIN

    PRINT 'No matche(s) Found for string '''+@FindString +''''

    END

    END

  • Hi,

    I tested it, but it still does not match the right schema for the tables.

    Ex:

    Invalid object name 'AdventureWorks.develop.Department'.

    Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    The real schema for the table 'Department' in the 'AdventureWorks' DB is

    'HumanResources':

    [AdventureWorks].[HumanResources].[Department]

    Maybe your script, in this version, is trying to inject the SP schema into resolving table names and not using the real schema for the tables. Just a wild guess... 🙂

    One more thing, may I suggest you to add as parameter the DB name?

    Scanning a server instance with a lot of DB's is taking quite a while. Maybe you can use the null value for this param to indicate a full scan.

    Nice job!

    Cheers,

    A.

  • This looks very interesting (I've not tried it out myself as at time of writting), however isn't it RBAR using the cursor? Or rather DBAD ... Database By Agonising Database! :hehe:

    How long are people finding it takes to run on 2/3/5/10 databases?

    Is there a SET based solution?

    On a similar theme, if you want to search the SQL code within database objects, I can't recommend enough Redgate's SQL Search (tiny SSMS addon)...

    http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-search/[/url]

    Regards,

    - Gavin

  • Thanks Gav B for the link..

    Thats the great search tool. But I don't find any way or tool to replace the searched string with some other string , like I am doing in my script.

    But as it is looping through all the databases ,it will be slow if the number of databases are large.

    We can improve this by adding a parameter for Database, as suggested by A in the previous post.

    Please let me know if you have any other views on this.

    Thanks 🙂

  • Hi a.grigoriu,

    If you want to use the script for a single database, then create the below sp on that database and run.This will be a bit faster approach.

    ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_ReplaceStringForSingleDB]

    (

    @FindString varchar(100),

    @ReplaceString varchar(100)

    )

    AS

    BEGIN

    SET NOCOUNT ON

    CREATE TABLE #FilteredTables(SchemaName varchar(255),TableName varchar(255),ColumnName varchar(128))

    DECLARE @SchemaName nvarchar(255), @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128),@cmd nvarchar(4000),@ErrorMsg varchar(4000),

    @WhrFindString varchar(100),@TableId int

    SET @TableName = ''

    SET @WhrFindString = QUOTENAME('%' + @FindString + '%','''')

    SET @cmd = 0

    -- Get all user tables

    DECLARE cur_Tables CURSOR FOR

    SELECT QUOTENAME(Schema_name(schema_id)),QUOTENAME(name), object_id FROM sys.objects WHERE type = 'U' and is_ms_shipped = 0

    OPEN cur_Tables

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Tables INTO @SchemaName, @TableName, @TableId

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    -- Get columns for table

    DECLARE cur_Columns CURSOR FOR

    SELECT QUOTENAME(name) FROM sys.columns WHERE object_id = @TableId AND system_type_id IN (167, 175, 231, 239, 99, 35)

    OPEN cur_Columns

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Columns INTO @ColumnName

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    -- Get only those tables and the particular column for which the match has found and inserts these details in temp table.

    SET @cmd = 'IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM ' +@SchemaName+'.'+ @TableName + ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ''%' + @FindString + '%'') insert into #FilteredTables select ''' +@SchemaName+''','''+ @TableName + ''', ''' + @ColumnName + ''''

    EXEC(@cmd)

    --print @cmd

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Columns INTO @ColumnName

    END

    CLOSE cur_Columns

    DEALLOCATE cur_Columns

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Tables INTO @SchemaName, @TableName, @TableId

    END

    CLOSE cur_Tables

    DEALLOCATE cur_Tables

    set @cmd = ''

    --- Cursor for creating and runing update statements for the tables filtered above.

    DECLARE cur_Replace CURSOR FOR

    SELECT SchemaName, TableName,ColumnName FROM #FilteredTables

    OPEN cur_Replace

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Replace INTO @SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)

    BEGIN

    SET @cmd = 'UPDATE ' + @SchemaName+'.'+@TableName +

    ' SET ' + @ColumnName

    + ' = REPLACE(' + @ColumnName + ', '

    + QUOTENAME(@FindString, '''') + ', ' + QUOTENAME(@ReplaceString, '''') +

    ') WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @WhrFindString

    print @cmd

    FETCH NEXT FROM cur_Replace INTO @SchemaName, @TableName,@ColumnName

    END

    CLOSE cur_Replace

    DEALLOCATE cur_Replace

    END

  • Hi paragbhuyar02,

    Thanks for the script.

    Regards,

    Adrian

  • I'm trying to think of a situation where I would want to replace a string value across X varchar columns in X tables and X databases. This would imply that someone needs to perform a quick and dirty update on a large database that they are not familiar with. However, I do like that it simply prints the UPDATE statements to the console rather than actually executing them.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

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