Skip to content

set-fmtonly-transact-sql.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
94 lines (73 loc) · 3.56 KB

set-fmtonly-transact-sql.md

File metadata and controls

94 lines (73 loc) · 3.56 KB
title SET FMTONLY (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date 03/06/2017
ms.prod sql-non-specified
ms.reviewer
ms.suite
ms.technology
database-engine
ms.tgt_pltfrm
ms.topic language-reference
f1_keywords
FMTONLY_TSQL
FMTONLY
SET FMTONLY
SET_FMTONLY_TSQL
dev_langs
TSQL
helpviewer_keywords
metadata [SQL Server], only metadata returned
SET FMTONLY statement
FMTONLY option
ms.assetid 02a1d9ac-2e58-433c-9a07-2c5a4a2214e1
caps.latest.revision 48
author BYHAM
ms.author rickbyh
manager jhubbard

SET FMTONLY (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all_md]

Returns only metadata to the client. Can be used to test the format of the response without actually running the query.

Note

Do not use this feature. This feature has been replaced by sp_describe_first_result_set (Transact-SQL), sp_describe_undeclared_parameters (Transact-SQL), sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set (Transact-SQL), and sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object (Transact-SQL).

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Parallel Data Warehouse  
  
SET FMTONLY { ON | OFF }

Remarks

No rows are processed or sent to the client because of the request when SET FMTONLY is turned ON.

The setting of SET FMTONLY is set at execute or run time and not at parse time.

Permissions

Requires membership in the public role.

Examples

A: View the column header information for a query without actually running the query.

The following example changes the SET FMTONLY setting to ON and executes a SELECT statement. The setting causes the statement to return the column information only; no rows of data are returned.

USE AdventureWorks2012;  
GO  
SET FMTONLY ON;  
GO  
SELECT *   
FROM HumanResources.Employee;  
GO  
SET FMTONLY OFF;  
GO

Examples: [!INCLUDEssSDWfull] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

B. View the column header information for a query without actually running the query.

The following example shows how to return only the column header (metadata) information for a query. The batch begins with FMTONLY set to OFF and changes FMTONLY to ON before the SELECT statement. This causes the SELECT statement to return only the column headers; no rows of data are returned.

-- Uses AdventureWorks  
  
BEGIN  
    SET FMTONLY OFF;  
    SET DATEFORMAT mdy;  
    SET FMTONLY ON;  
    SELECT * FROM dbo.DimCustomer;  
    SET FMTONLY OFF;  
END

See Also

SET Statements (Transact-SQL)