RE: SQL2000 Data Dictionary

[dthomps -at- foundationsoft -dot- com]

I'm with Andrew on this one. There's no standard format that I know of. I
will add, however, that we're using SQL 7, and we purchased a very cheap
little utility to export all of the information into a Word file. It places
the information for each DB table in a Word table. All I do is apply some
styles, and throw it into our standard template. All in all it takes about
an hour to do ... and that's for a huge DB.

If you're not using SQL 2000 and you're interested in this tool, John, let
me know and I'll get you some info. I can also send you a sample page or
two.

Dannette Thompson 
Senior Technical Writer 
dthompson -at- foundationsoft -dot- com <mailto:dthomps -at- foundationsoft -dot- com> 

Foundation Software, Inc. <http://www.foundationsoft.com>  
800-246-0800 ext. 213
The #1 Accounting Software for Labor-Intensive Contractors 



-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato [mailto:gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com]

Probably. A data dictionary has no formal design I've ever seen. I used to
do
them as big tables. The only other column you would want to add is "null?"
to
indicate if the column can be null or not. Also, you'll want a copy of the
ERD
in the dictionary. They are usually sorted by table in the DB, not as a huge
column mass. 

I used to doc data dictionaries all the time. SQL 2000 is easy, it will
actually give you a nice export of the entire database. Just reformat that
and
fill in the rest. I think SQL Server 2000 also has a feature that will doc
the
database for you. I don't remember. You'd need admin rights to the database
to
access that feature, which the DBA might not want to give you. 

Andrew Plato

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