How do I find a default constraint using INFORMATION_SCHEMA?

Question

I'm trying to test if a given default constraint exists. I don't want to use the sysobjects table, but the more standard INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

I've used this to check for tables and primary key constraints before, but I don't see default constraints anywhere.

Are they not there? (I'm using MS SQL Server 2000).

EDIT: I'm looking to get by the name of the constraint.

Answer 1

As I understand it, default value constraints aren't part of the ISO standard, so they don't appear in INFORMATION_SCHEMA. INFORMATION_SCHEMA seems like the best choice for this kind of task because it is cross-platform, but if the information isn't available one should use the object catalog views (sys.*) instead of system table views, which are deprecated in SQL Server 2005 and later.

Below is pretty much the same as @user186476's answer. It returns the name of the default value constraint for a given column. (For non-SQL Server users, you need the name of the default in order to drop it, and if you don't name the default constraint yourself, SQL Server creates some crazy name like "DF_TableN_Colum_95AFE4B5". To make it easier to change your schema in the future, always explicitly name your constraints!)

-- returns name of a column's default value constraint 
SELECT
    default_constraints.name
FROM 
    sys.all_columns

        INNER JOIN
    sys.tables
        ON all_columns.object_id = tables.object_id

        INNER JOIN 
    sys.schemas
        ON tables.schema_id = schemas.schema_id

        INNER JOIN
    sys.default_constraints
        ON all_columns.default_object_id = default_constraints.object_id

WHERE 
        schemas.name = 'dbo'
    AND tables.name = 'tablename'
    AND all_columns.name = 'columnname'

Answer 2

You can use the following to narrow the results even more by specifying the Table Name and Column Name that the Default Constraint correlates to:

select * from sysobjects o 
inner join syscolumns c
on o.id = c.cdefault
inner join sysobjects t
on c.id = t.id
where o.xtype = 'D'
and c.name = 'Column_Name'
and t.name = 'Table_Name'

Answer 3

There seems to be no Default Constraint names in the Information_Schema views.

use SELECT * FROM sysobjects WHERE xtype = 'D' AND name = @name to find a default constraint by name

Answer 4

The script below lists all the default constraints and the default values for the user tables in the database in which it is being run:

SELECT  
        b.name AS TABLE_NAME,
        d.name AS COLUMN_NAME,
        a.name AS CONSTRAINT_NAME,
        c.text AS DEFAULT_VALUE
FROM sys.sysobjects a INNER JOIN
        (SELECT name, id
         FROM sys.sysobjects 
         WHERE xtype = 'U') b on (a.parent_obj = b.id)
                      INNER JOIN sys.syscomments c ON (a.id = c.id)
                      INNER JOIN sys.syscolumns d ON (d.cdefault = a.id)                                          
 WHERE a.xtype = 'D'        
 ORDER BY b.name, a.name

Answer 5

If you want to get a constraint by the column or table names, or you want to get all the constraints in the database, look to other answers. However, if you're just looking for exactly what the question asks, namely, to "test if a given default constraint exists ... by the name of the constraint", then there's a much easier way.

Here's a future-proof answer that doesn't use the sysobjects or other sys tables at all:

IF object_id('DF_CONSTRAINT_NAME', 'D') IS NOT NULL BEGIN
   -- constraint exists, work with it.
END

Answer 6

select c.name, col.name from sys.default_constraints c
    inner join sys.columns col on col.default_object_id = c.object_id
    inner join sys.objects o  on o.object_id = c.parent_object_id
    inner join sys.schemas s on s.schema_id = o.schema_id
where s.name = @SchemaName and o.name = @TableName and col.name = @ColumnName

Answer 7

Is the COLUMN_DEFAULT column of INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS what you are looking for?

Answer 8

Necromancing.
If you only need to check if a default-constraint exists
(default-constraint(s) may have different name in poorly-managed DBs),
use INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS (column_default):

IF NOT EXISTS(
    SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
    WHERE (1=1) 
    AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo' 
    AND TABLE_NAME = 'T_VWS_PdfBibliothek' 
    AND COLUMN_NAME = 'PB_Text'
    AND COLUMN_DEFAULT IS NOT NULL  
)
BEGIN 
    EXECUTE('ALTER TABLE dbo.T_VWS_PdfBibliothek 
                ADD CONSTRAINT DF_T_VWS_PdfBibliothek_PB_Text DEFAULT (N''image'') FOR PB_Text; 
    '); 
END 

If you want to check by the constraint-name only:

-- Alternative way: 
IF OBJECT_ID('DF_CONSTRAINT_NAME', 'D') IS NOT NULL 
BEGIN
    -- constraint exists, deal with it.
END 

And last but not least, you can just create a view called
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.DEFAULT_CONSTRAINTS:

CREATE VIEW INFORMATION_SCHEMA.DEFAULT_CONSTRAINTS 
AS 
SELECT 
     DB_NAME() AS CONSTRAINT_CATALOG 
    ,csch.name AS CONSTRAINT_SCHEMA
    ,dc.name AS CONSTRAINT_NAME 
    ,DB_NAME() AS TABLE_CATALOG 
    ,sch.name AS TABLE_SCHEMA 
    ,syst.name AS TABLE_NAME 
    ,sysc.name AS COLUMN_NAME 
    ,COLUMNPROPERTY(sysc.object_id, sysc.name, 'ordinal') AS ORDINAL_POSITION 
    ,dc.type_desc AS CONSTRAINT_TYPE 
    ,dc.definition AS COLUMN_DEFAULT 

    -- ,dc.create_date 
    -- ,dc.modify_date 
FROM sys.columns AS sysc -- 46918 / 3892 with inner joins + where 
-- FROM sys.all_columns AS sysc -- 55429 / 3892 with inner joins + where 

INNER JOIN sys.tables AS syst 
    ON syst.object_id = sysc.object_id 

INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS sch
    ON sch.schema_id = syst.schema_id 

INNER JOIN sys.default_constraints AS dc 
    ON sysc.default_object_id = dc.object_id

INNER JOIN sys.schemas AS csch
    ON csch.schema_id = dc.schema_id 

WHERE (1=1) 
AND dc.is_ms_shipped = 0 

/*
WHERE (1=1) 
AND sch.name = 'dbo'
AND syst.name = 'tablename'
AND sysc.name = 'columnname'
*/

Answer 9

WHILE EXISTS( 
    SELECT * FROM  sys.all_columns 
    INNER JOIN sys.tables ST  ON all_columns.object_id = ST.object_id
    INNER JOIN sys.schemas ON ST.schema_id = schemas.schema_id
    INNER JOIN sys.default_constraints ON all_columns.default_object_id = default_constraints.object_id
    WHERE 
    schemas.name = 'dbo'
    AND ST.name = 'MyTable'
)
BEGIN 
DECLARE @SQL NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'';

SET @SQL = (  SELECT TOP 1
     'ALTER TABLE ['+  schemas.name + '].[' + ST.name + '] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + default_constraints.name + ';'
   FROM 
      sys.all_columns

         INNER JOIN
      sys.tables ST
         ON all_columns.object_id = ST.object_id

         INNER JOIN 
      sys.schemas
         ON ST.schema_id = schemas.schema_id

         INNER JOIN
      sys.default_constraints
         ON all_columns.default_object_id = default_constraints.object_id

   WHERE 
         schemas.name = 'dbo'
      AND ST.name = 'MyTable'
      )
   PRINT @SQL
   EXECUTE sp_executesql @SQL 

   --End if Error 
   IF @@ERROR <> 0 
   BREAK
END 

Answer 10

If the target database has, say, over 1M objects, using sys.default_constraints can hit you with 90%+ taken on scanning sys.syscolpars followed by a Key Lookup for the dflt you likely don't care about. On my DB, it takes 1.129s to assemble just 4 rows from the 158 read of the residual I/O impaired 1.12MM rows actually scanned.

Changing to using the current sys.% tables/views, using @Tim's query, the same 4 constraints are acquired in 2ms. Hope someone finds this as useful as I found Tim's:

SELECT ConstraintName = sdc.name
     , SchemaName     = ssch.name
     , TableName      = stab.name
     , ColumnName     = scol.name
  FROM sys.objects            sdc
       INNER JOIN sys.columns scol
               ON scol.default_object_id = sdc.object_id
       INNER JOIN sys.objects stab
               ON stab.object_id         = scol.object_id
       INNER JOIN sys.schemas ssch
               ON ssch.schema_id         = stab.schema_id;

Answer 11

I don't think it's in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA - you'll probably have to use sysobjects or related deprecated tables/views.

You would think there would be a type for this in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS, but I don't see one.

Answer 12

Probably because on some of the other SQL DBMSs the "default constraint" is not really a constraint, you'll not find its name in "INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS", so your best bet is "INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS" as others have mentioned already.

(SQLServer-ignoramus here)

The only a reason I can think of when you have to know the "default constraint"'s name is if SQLServer doesn't support "ALTER TABLE xxx ALTER COLUMN yyy SET DEFAULT..." command. But then you are already in a non-standard zone and you have to use the product-specific ways to get what you need.

Answer 13

I am using folllowing script to retreive all defaults (sp_binddefaults) and all default constraint with following scripts:

SELECT 
    t.name AS TableName, c.name AS ColumnName, SC.COLUMN_DEFAULT AS DefaultValue, dc.name AS DefaultConstraintName
FROM  
    sys.all_columns c
    JOIN sys.tables t ON c.object_id = t.object_id
    JOIN sys.schemas s ON t.schema_id = s.schema_id
    LEFT JOIN sys.default_constraints dc ON c.default_object_id = dc.object_id
    LEFT JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS SC ON (SC.TABLE_NAME = t.name AND SC.COLUMN_NAME = c.name)
WHERE 
    SC.COLUMN_DEFAULT IS NOT NULL
    --WHERE t.name = '' and c.name = ''

Answer 14

Object Catalog View : sys.default_constraints

The information schema views INFORMATION_SCHEMA are ANSI-compliant, but the default constraints aren't a part of ISO standard. Microsoft SQL Server provides system catalog views for getting information about SQL Server object metadata.

sys.default_constraints system catalog view used to getting the information about default constraints.

SELECT so.object_id TableName,
       ss.name AS TableSchema,
       cc.name AS Name,
       cc.object_id AS ObjectID,              
       sc.name AS ColumnName,
       cc.parent_column_id AS ColumnID,
       cc.definition AS Defination,
       CONVERT(BIT,
               CASE cc.is_system_named
                   WHEN 1
                   THEN 1
                   ELSE 0
               END) AS IsSystemNamed,
       cc.create_date AS CreationDate,
       cc.modify_date AS LastModifiednDate
FROM sys.default_constraints cc WITH (NOLOCK)
     INNER JOIN sys.objects so WITH (NOLOCK) ON so.object_id = cc.parent_object_id
     LEFT JOIN sys.schemas ss WITH (NOLOCK) ON ss.schema_id = so.schema_id
     LEFT JOIN sys.columns sc WITH (NOLOCK) ON sc.column_id = cc.parent_column_id
                                               AND sc.object_id = cc.parent_object_id
ORDER BY so.name,
         cc.name;

Answer 15

A bit of a cleaner way to do this:

SELECT DC.[name]
  FROM [sys].[default_constraints] AS DC
  WHERE DC.[parent_object_id] = OBJECT_ID('[Schema].[TableName]') 

Answer 16

How about using a combination of CHECK_CONSTRAINTS and CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE:

    select columns.table_name,columns.column_name,columns.column_default,checks.constraint_name
          from information_schema.columns columns
             inner join information_schema.constraint_column_usage usage on 
                  columns.column_name = usage.column_name and columns.table_name = usage.table_name
             inner join information_schema.check_constraints checks on usage.constraint_name = checks.constraint_name
    where columns.column_default is not null