Dynamic query where the same field is actually named slightly different with no rhyme or reason

[wbodger]

I am working on some audit data, thought I was done and now they would like it further refined. No problem, I have that data, I will work it into the refinement. And now I find that with all of the databases and tables that I am stepping thru, the one field that they want me to refine on has three different names. It could be fid, formid or form_id and I have no idea which one it might be. So, is there any way (aside from running thru the information_schema for each db) to use multiple possibilities for a field to return? Only one of the three field names will exist, I just don't know which one it will be.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Isn't it the easiest solution to look it up and then know it?

Select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS Where COLUMN_NAME in ('fid', 'formid', 'form_id')

If you don't have access (remotely perhaps), the easiest of course would be to prepare 3 queries, execute them, catch their error and then log which one works, in the next software version then use the one working only.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[wbodger]

Thanks, Olaf. I had forgotten I posted this, but I got it figured out last week using information_schema.columns.