In SQL Server, you can find the data(value) from all tables if your database has a lot of tables, data, and columns. It is difficult to find them.

SQL Server Contents:

So you can create a query to find a value, follow step by step:

1. Create a parameter and set a parameter value

For this example I assign parameter value “SALARY”

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100)
SET @SearchStr = 'SALARY'

2. Create a temp table

Create TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))

Full code:

DECLARE @SearchStr nvarchar(100)
SET @SearchStr = 'SALARY'
 
Create TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630))
 
SET NOCOUNT ON
 
DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110)
SET  @TableName = ''
SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''')
 
WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL
 
BEGIN
    SET @ColumnName = ''
    SET @TableName = 
    (
        SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME))
        FROM     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
        WHERE         TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
            AND    QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName
            AND    OBJECTPROPERTY(
                    OBJECT_ID(
                        QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)
                         ), 'IsMSShipped'
                           ) = 0
    )
 
    WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL)
         
    BEGIN
        SET @ColumnName =
        (
            SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME))
            FROM     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
            WHERE         TABLE_SCHEMA    = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2)
                AND    TABLE_NAME    = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1)
                AND    DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar', 'int', 'decimal')
                AND    QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName
        )
 
        IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL
         
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO #Results
            EXEC
            (
                'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' +
                ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2
            )
        END
    END   
END
 
SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results
 DROP TABLE #Results

For more understanding, watch this video: