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Find all tables with a specific column name + where value is lower than X

I need help in searching our database. So we have this problem that we need to know all tables, with the column_name “sysmodified” and see if there are any entries before a specific date (25-sep-2019).

I tried to find the answer on google and stackoverflow, but I either get an answer how to get the results before 25-sep within 1 table Example1, or results how to get all tables, which has this column_name Example2.

Using the code I have so far (see below), we know that there are 325 tables, which contain the column_name “sysmodified”. I could manually use example 1 to get my information, but I was hoping for a way to get the results that I need with just one query.

This is what I have so far:

USE [database2]
GO
SELECT t.name AS table_name, 
SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS schema_name,
c.name AS column_name
FROM sys.tables AS t
INNER JOIN sys.columns c ON t.OBJECT_ID = c.OBJECT_ID
WHERE c.name LIKE '%%sysmodified%%'
ORDER BY schema_name, table_name;

However if I try to enter anything like sysmodified < ‘20190925’. I get errors

WHERE c.name LIKE '%%sysmodified%%'
AND t.sysmodified < '20190925'

or this approach, which also results in errors

SELECT t.name AS table_name, sysmodified,

based on (but I cannot add 325 columnnames in FROM?)

SELECT
  title,
  primary_author,
  published_date
FROM
  books
WHERE
  title LIKE 'The%%'

Hopefully someone could help me with an approach how to tackle this problem. We use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 17 (if that might be relevant).

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Answer

This is fairly simple dynamic sql to put together. This should produce the results you are looking for as I understand your requirements.

declare @SQL nvarchar(MAX) = ''

select @SQL = @SQL + 'select distinct TableName = ''' + object_name(object_ID) + ''' from ' + quotename(object_name(object_ID)) + ' where ' + quotename(c.name) + ' < ''20190925'' UNION ALL '
from sys.columns c
where name like '%%sysmodified%%'

set @SQL = left(@SQL, len(@SQL) - 10) --removes the final UNION ALL

select @SQL
--once you are comfortable that the dynamic sql is correct just uncomment the next line
--exec sp_executesql @SQL

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