The indexes on a the tables of a large database make a huge difference in its performance and utility. Without an index, locating a single record in a large table can take several seconds; with the ...
Updating fact rows inside a star schema set of tables is never a best practice. Even so, some organizations travel down this path. Consultants occasionally will go so far as to embrace the idea of ...
I know in Oracle you can use DBA_TAB_COLUMNS (or ALL_TAB_COLUMNS). My SQL Server knowledge is very rusty, but can't you use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS view?