How do you query all columns and all tables for a specific string

Re: How do you query all columns and all tables for a specific string

From:	Jasen Betts <jasen(at)xnet(dot)co(dot)nz>
To:	pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject:	Re: How do you query all columns and all tables for a specific string
Date:	2010-03-23 08:46:37
Message-ID:	ho9v5d$1ra$1@reversiblemaps.ath.cx (view raw or flat)
Thread:	2010-03-22 16:02:12 from Ryan Garvey <ryan(dot)garvey1(at)gmail(dot)com>    2010-03-23 06:04:04 from "A(dot) Kretschmer" <andreas(dot)kretschmer(at)schollglas(dot)com>    2010-03-23 08:46:37 from Jasen Betts <jasen(at)xnet(dot)co(dot)nz>       2010-03-23 08:46:37 from Jasen Betts <jasen(at)xnet(dot)co(dot)nz>
Lists:	pgsql-novice

On 2010-03-22, Ryan Garvey <ryan(dot)garvey1(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
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> I recently inhereted a database that I know nothing about that has hundreds
> of tables most of which have meaningless names, or at least to me. I am
> trying to find a table and column that holds a specific serial number. I
> have no idea what table or what column it would be stored in. Is it possible
> to search the entire database?

you could scan a dump of the for the serial number you want and work
back from there.


eg: assuming the serial you want is '1234237854'

  pg_dump databasename | egrep  '^COPY|1234237854' | grep -B1 '1234237854'