sp_describe_first_result_set

Returns the metadata for the first result set of the T-SQL batch. Returns an empty result set if the batch returns no results. Raises an error if the Engine cannot determine the metadata for the first query that will be executed by performing a static analysis.

Arguments

• @tsql - One or more Transact-SQL statements. Transact-SQL_batch may be nvarchar(n) or nvarchar(max).

Result Sets

This common metadata is returned as a result set with one row for each column in the results metadata. Each row describes the type and nullability of the column in the format described below.

Column name	Data type	Description
is_hidden	bit NOT NULL	Indicates that the column is an extra column added for browsing information purposes and that it does not appear in the result set.
column_ordinal	int NOT NULL	Contains the ordinal position of the column in the result set. The first column’s position will be specified as 1.
name	sysname NULL	Contains the name of the column if a name can be determined. Otherwise, it will contain NULL.
is_nullable	bit NOT NULL	Contains the value 1 if the column allows NULLs, 0 if the column does not allow NULLs, and 1 if it cannot be determined if the column allows NULLs.
system_type_id	int NOT NULL	Contains the system_type_id of the data type of the column as specified in sys.types.
system_type_name	nvarchar(256) NULL	Contains the name and arguments (eg. length, precision, scale), specified for the data type of the column. If the data type is a user-defined alias type, the underlying system type is specified here.
max_length	smallint NOT NULL	Maximum length (in bytes) of the column. -1 = Column data type is varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), or xml.
precision	tinyint NOT NULL	Precision of the column if numeric-based. Otherwise returns 0.
scale	tinyint NOT NULL	Scale of column if numeric-based. Otherwise returns 0.
collation_name	sysname NULL	Name of the collation of the column if character-based. Otherwise returns NULL.
user_type_id	int NULL	Unused, always NULL.
user_type_database	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
user_type_schema	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
user_type_name	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
assembly_qualified_type_name	nvarchar(4000)	Unused, always NULL.
xml_collection_id	int NULL	Unused, always NULL.
xml_collection_database	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
xml_collection_schema	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
xml_collection_name	sysname NULL	Unused, always NULL.
is_xml_document	bit NOT NULL	Unused, always NULL.
is_case_sensitive	bit NOT NULL	Returns 1 if the column is a case-sensitive string type and 0 if it is not.
is_fixed_length_clr_type	bit NOT NULL	Unused, always NULL.
source_server	sysname	Unused, always NULL.
source_database	sysname	Unused, always NULL.
source_schema	sysname	Unused, always NULL.
source_table	sysname	Unused, always NULL.
source_column	sysname	Unused, always NULL.
is_identity_column	bit NULL	Returns 1 if the column is an identity column and 0 if not. Returns NULL if it cannot be determined that the column is an identity column.
is_part_of_unique_key	bit NULL	Always 0.
is_updateable	bit NULL	Always 1.
is_computed_column	smallint NULL	Always 0.
is_sparse_column_set	smallint NULL	Always 0.
ordinal_in_order_by_list	smallint NULL	Unused, always NULL.
order_by_list_length	smallint NULL	Unused, always NULL.
order_by_is_descending	smallint NULL	Unused, always NULL.
tds_type_id	int NOT NULL	For internal use.
tds_length	int NOT NULL	For internal use.
tds_collation_id	int NULL	For internal use.
tds_collation_sort_id	tinyint NULL	For internal use.

Permissions

Requires permission to execute the @tsql argument.

Example

The following example describes the result set returned from a single query.

EXEC sp_describe_first_result_set @tsql=N'select * from MyView'