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COL_NAME (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW)

This function returns the name of a table column, based on the table identification number and column identification number values of that table column.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

COL_NAME ( table_id , column_id )

Arguments

table_id

The identification number of the table containing that column. The table_id argument has an int data type.

column_id

The identification number of the column. The column_id argument has an int data type.

Return types

sysname

Exceptions

Returns NULL on error, or if a caller doesn't have the correct permission to view the object.

A user can only view the metadata of securables that the user owns, or on which the user is granted permission. This means that metadata-emitting, built-in functions such as COL_NAME might return NULL, if the user doesn't have correct permissions on the object. For more information, see Metadata visibility configuration.

Remarks

The table_id and column_id parameters together produce a column name string.

For more information about obtaining table and column identification numbers, see OBJECT_ID.

Examples

The code samples in this article use the AdventureWorks2022 or AdventureWorksDW2022 sample database, which you can download from the Microsoft SQL Server Samples and Community Projects home page.

A. Return names of first two columns in a table

This example returns the name of the first two columns in the Person.Person table.

USE AdventureWorks2022;
GO

SELECT COL_NAME(OBJECT_ID('Person.Person'), 1) AS FirstColumnName,
       COL_NAME(OBJECT_ID('Person.Person'), 2) AS SecondColumnName;

Here's the result set.

FirstColumnName    SecondColumnName
-----------------  -----------------
BusinessEntityID    PersonType

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