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title: "System Information Schema Views (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs"
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# System Information Schema Views (Transact-SQL)
[!INCLUDE[tsql-appliesto-ss2012-xxxx-xxxx-xxx_md](../../includes/tsql-appliesto-ss2012-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-md.md)]

  An information schema view is one of several methods [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] provides for obtaining metadata. Information schema views provide an internal, system table-independent view of the [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] metadata. Information schema views enable applications to work correctly although significant changes have been made to the underlying system tables. The information schema views included in [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] comply with the ISO standard definition for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.  
  
> [!IMPORTANT]  
>  Some changes have been made to the information schema views that break backward compatibility. These changes are described in the topics for the specific views.  
  
 [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] supports a three-part naming convention when you refer to the current server. The ISO standard also supports a three-part naming convention. However, the names used in both naming conventions are different. The information schema views are defined in a special schema named INFORMATION_SCHEMA. This schema is contained in each database. Each information schema view contains metadata for all data objects stored in that particular database. The following table shows the relationships between the [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] names and the SQL standard names.  
  
|SQL Server name|Maps to this equivalent SQL standard name|  
|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------|  
|Database|Catalog|  
|Schema|Schema|  
|Object|Object|  
|user-defined data type|Domain|  
  
 This name-mapping convention applies to the following [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] ISO-compatible views.  
  
|||  
|-|-|  
|[CHECK_CONSTRAINTS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/check-constraints-transact-sql.md)|[REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/referential-constraints-transact-sql.md)|  
|[COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/column-domain-usage-transact-sql.md)|[ROUTINES](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/routines-transact-sql.md)|  
|[COLUMN_PRIVILEGES](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/column-privileges-transact-sql.md)|[ROUTINE_COLUMNS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/routine-columns-transact-sql.md)|  
|[COLUMNS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/columns-transact-sql.md)|[SCHEMATA](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/schemata-transact-sql.md)|  
|[CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/constraint-column-usage-transact-sql.md)|[TABLE_CONSTRAINTS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/table-constraints-transact-sql.md)|  
|[CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/constraint-table-usage-transact-sql.md)|[TABLE_PRIVILEGES](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/table-privileges-transact-sql.md)|  
|[DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/domain-constraints-transact-sql.md)|[TABLES](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/tables-transact-sql.md)|  
|[DOMAINS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/domains-transact-sql.md)|[VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/view-column-usage-transact-sql.md)|  
|[KEY_COLUMN_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/key-column-usage-transact-sql.md)|[VIEW_TABLE_USAGE](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/view-table-usage-transact-sql.md)|  
|[PARAMETERS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/parameters-transact-sql.md)|[VIEWS](../../relational-databases/system-information-schema-views/views-transact-sql.md)|  
  
 Also, some views contain references to different classes of data such as character data or binary data.  
  
 When you reference the information schema views, you must use a qualified name that includes the `INFORMATION_SCHEMA` schema name. For example:  
  
```  
SELECT TABLE_CATALOG, TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, COLUMN_DEFAULT  
FROM AdventureWorks2012.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS  
WHERE TABLE_NAME = N'Product';  
GO  
```  
  
## See Also  
 [System Views (Transact-SQL)](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/35a6161d-7f43-4e00-bcd3-3091f2015e90)   
 [Data Types (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/data-types/data-types-transact-sql.md)   
 [System Stored Procedures (Transact-SQL)](../../relational-databases/system-stored-procedures/system-stored-procedures-transact-sql.md)