Get List of Computed Columns in Database Table (SQL Server)

Question

Hi guys,

Would any of you know how to get the list of computed columns in a SQL Server database table?

I found sys.sp_help tablename does return this information, but only in the secord resultset.

I am trying to find out if there is a better way of doing this. Something which only returns a single result set.

Any help is very appreciated, as this is very badly documented.

Thank you, Giammarco

Answer 1

Sure - check the sys.columns system catalog view:

SELECT * FROM sys.columns
WHERE is_computed = 1

This gives you all computed columns in this database.

If you want those for just a single table, use this query:

SELECT * FROM sys.columns
WHERE is_computed = 1
AND object_id = OBJECT_ID('YourTableName')

This works on SQL Server 2005 and up.

UPDATE: There's even a sys.computed_columns system catalog view which also contains the definition (expression) of the computed column - just in case that might be needed some time :-)

SELECT * FROM sys.computed_columns
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('YourTableName')

Marc