temporal-table-metadata-views-and-functions.md

title	Temporal Table Metadata Views and Functions | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date	03/28/2016
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	database-engine, sql-database
ms.reviewer
ms.technology	table-view-index
ms.topic	conceptual
ms.assetid	e5d23ec9-7d18-40f6-add4-bea13132d0b9
author	CarlRabeler
ms.author	carlrab
monikerRange	=azuresqldb-current||>=sql-server-2016||=sqlallproducts-allversions||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current

Temporal Table Metadata Views and Functions

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2016-asdb-xxxx-xxx-md]

[!INCLUDEssCurrent] and [!INCLUDEsqldbesa] include a number of metabase views and functions to enable administrators to retrieve information about temporal tables.

Information about temporal tables is exposed in the following metadata views:

• sys.tables (Transact-SQL)
• sys.columns (Transact-SQL)
• sys.periods (Transact-SQL)

Information about temporal tables is exposed in the following metadata functions:

• OBJECTPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)

• OBJECTPROPERTYEX (Transact-SQL)

• COLUMNPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)

Next steps

• Temporal Tables
• Getting Started with System-Versioned Temporal Tables
• Temporal Table System Consistency Checks
• Partitioning with Temporal Tables
• Temporal Table Considerations and Limitations
• Temporal Table Security
• Manage Retention of Historical Data in System-Versioned Temporal Tables
• System-Versioned Temporal Tables with Memory-Optimized Tables