I see no effect for ScriptingOptions.ConvertUserDefinedDataTypesToBaseType=true

Question

Hi!
I need to copy a table via SMO (without data, just the structure) and I want to build the new table as a temptable. Most of this is working great, unfortunately the ScritingOptins ConvertUserDefinedDataTypesToBaseType=true has no effect. For me it looks
like that always the UserDefinedDataTypes are scipted.
I'am doing it this way:
//create a new table
Table tempTable = new Table(database, "Tblname");
// copy all columns from orginal table
foreach (Column c in orgtable.Columns)
tempTable.Columns.Add(CopyColumn(c));
ScriptingOptions options = new ScriptingOptions();
options.ConvertUserDefinedDataTypesToBaseType = true;
StringCollection sqlCollection=tempTable.Script(options);
The problem is: Tthe result script contains columns based on a userdefinieddatatype, so they are still from this type and not from basetype?! E.g.: is the column from Type "MySSN", I want the basetype maybe VARCHAR(11)
Any idea what I'am doing wrong?
Thanks!
Andreas

Answer 1

I've found a solution to copy the metadata of a table using the base datatypes of columns with user defined datatypes.
The source code I've use is from here: https://github.com/mercent/scriptdb/blob/master/FileScripter.cs
The trick is to create a new datatype based on the userdefinieddatatype: 
if (srcType.SqlDataType == SqlDataType.UserDefinedDataType)
SqlDataType sqlType = GetBaseSqlDataType(database, srcType);
destType = GetDataType(sqlType, srcType.NumericPrecision, srcType.NumericScale, srcType.MaximumLength);
else
destType = srcType;
Column destinationColumn = new Column(parent, sourceColumn.Name, destType);
public DataType GetBaseDataType(DataType dataType)
if(dataType.SqlDataType != SqlDataType.UserDefinedDataType)
return dataType;
UserDefinedDataType uddt = database.UserDefinedDataTypes[dataType.Name, dataType.Schema];
SqlDataType baseSqlDataType = GetBaseSqlDataType(uddt);
DataType baseDataType = GetDataType(baseSqlDataType, uddt.NumericPrecision, uddt.NumericScale, uddt.MaxLength);
return baseDataType;
public SqlDataType GetBaseSqlDataType(DataType dataType)
if(dataType.SqlDataType != SqlDataType.UserDefinedDataType)
return dataType.SqlDataType;
UserDefinedDataType uddt = database.UserDefinedDataTypes[dataType.Name, dataType.Schema];
return GetBaseSqlDataType(uddt);
public string GetDataTypeAsString(DataType dataType)
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
switch(dataType.SqlDataType)
case SqlDataType.Binary:
case SqlDataType.Char:
case SqlDataType.NChar:
case SqlDataType.NVarChar:
case SqlDataType.VarBinary:
case SqlDataType.VarChar:
sb.Append(MakeSqlBracket(dataType.Name));
sb.Append('(');
sb.Append(dataType.MaximumLength);
sb.Append(')');
break;
case SqlDataType.NVarCharMax:
case SqlDataType.VarBinaryMax:
case SqlDataType.VarCharMax:
sb.Append(MakeSqlBracket(dataType.Name));
sb.Append("(max)");
break;
case SqlDataType.Decimal:
case SqlDataType.Numeric:
sb.Append(MakeSqlBracket(dataType.Name));
sb.AppendFormat("({0},{1})", dataType.NumericPrecision, dataType.NumericScale);
break;
case SqlDataType.UserDefinedDataType:
// For a user defined type, get the base data type as string
DataType baseDataType = GetBaseDataType(dataType);
return GetDataTypeAsString(baseDataType);
case SqlDataType.Xml:
sb.Append("[xml]");
if(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(dataType.Name))
sb.AppendFormat("({0} {1})", dataType.XmlDocumentConstraint, dataType.Name);
break;
default:
sb.Append(MakeSqlBracket(dataType.Name));
break;
return sb.ToString();