要检索实际声明的数据类型，例如在动态SQL To ALTER COLUMNs中使用，可以使用这样的方法:

SELECT
    TABLE_NAME, 
    COLUMN_NAME,
    DATA_TYPE
        + CASE WHEN DATA_TYPE IN ('char','nchar','varchar','nvarchar','binary','varbinary')
                    AND CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH > 0 THEN
                 COALESCE('('+CONVERT(varchar,CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH)+')','')
            ELSE '' END
        + CASE WHEN DATA_TYPE IN ('decimal','numeric') THEN
                COALESCE('('+CONVERT(varchar,NUMERIC_PRECISION)+','+CONVERT(varchar,NUMERIC_SCALE)+')','')
            ELSE '' END
        AS Declaration_Type,
    CASE WHEN IS_NULLABLE='NO' THEN 'NOT ' ELSE '' END + 'NULL' AS Nullable
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
ORDER BY 1,2

使用SQL Server:

SELECT DATA_TYPE 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE 
     TABLE_SCHEMA = 'yourSchemaName' AND
     TABLE_NAME   = 'yourTableName' AND 
     COLUMN_NAME  = 'yourColumnName'

我认为在Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio中最简单和最有用的方法是:

EXEC [ServerName].[DatabaseName].dbo.sp_help 'TableName'

对于Apache Derby，如下面的答案所示:

select columndatatype from sys.syscolumns
  where referenceid = (
    select tableid from sys.systables
    where tablename = 'YOUR_TABEL_NAME'
    and columnname= 'YOUR_COLUMN_NAME')

USE [YourDatabaseName]
GO

SELECT column_name 'Column Name',
data_type 'Data Type'
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = 'YourTableName'
GO

这将返回值Column Name，显示列的名称，以及这些列的数据类型(int, varchars等)。

从SQL Server 2012开始:

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set( N'SELECT * FROM [my].[Table]', NULL, 0 );