Searching for a column name in a SQL database

Here are a couple of different ways to search for a column name within a SQL Server database:

-- using information_schema views (preferred method)

SELECT sc.table_name
  
FROM information_schema.columns sc
  
INNER JOIN information_schema.tables st
    
ON sc.table_name = st.table_name
  
WHERE st.table_type = 'base table'
  
AND sc.column_name = 'ColumnToFind'
  
ORDER BY sc.table_name

-- old school
SELECT name
  
FROM sysobjects
  
WHERE id IN
  
(
     
SELECT id
       
FROM syscolumns
       
WHERE name = 'ColumnToFind' )
        AND
xtype = 'U'
       
ORDER BY name

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