System table – syscolumns

Compatability view should be upgraded to catalog view.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000:

 SELECT … FROM syscolumns

Microsoft SQL Server 2008:

 SELECT … FROM sys.columns

Column convesion:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (syscolumns)	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (sys.columns)
id	object_id
colid	CONVERT(smallint,column_id)
isnullable	is_nullable
xtype	system_type_id
length	case when max_length = -1 then 8000 else max_length end
xprec	precision
scale	CONVERT(int, nullif(scale,0))
collation	collation_name
cdefault	default_object_id
xusertype	user_type_id
name	Isnull(name, '')
CollationPropertyFromId(collationid, 'sqlcharset')	CollationProperty(collation_name, 'sqlcharset')