SET FMTONLY

statements

#tsql#statements

Syntax

SET FMTONLY { ON | OFF }

Arguments

ON

Only metadata is returned; no actual rows are processed.

OFF

Full results including data rows are returned (default).

Remarks

SET FMTONLY ON is commonly used in client applications to retrieve column metadata without executing the full query. This setting is deprecated and should be replaced with sp_describe_first_result_set.

Examples

-- Enable FMTONLY to retrieve only metadata
SET FMTONLY ON;
SELECT * FROM sys.objects;
SET FMTONLY OFF;