Question regarding field/column data types

[leochavez]

How would I go about finding what data types are assigned to table columns, particularly the 'description' field within the Incident (Task) table?   Users would like to add large amounts of text into that particular field, and would like the max length on that field expanded to 70,000.   Tables extending the Task table will also be affected.

I'm concerned that the large size may have an impact on overall performance or general usability of the form.

[williamsun]

What you want to do is go to the Dictionary [sys_dictionary] table and filter for table = task and column name = description.

My record is set to Max length of 4,000 and this would be where you would change it.

Do consider that the description field belongs to the "task" table, and, as you stated, this change would affect all "description" fields in the task table and all it's child tables, which are basically all the assignable tickets in ServiceNow.   It might, as you also state, have an impact on performance, but I am not sure how much of an impact this would be.   Maybe try it in a sub-production environment first.

[JJ1]

You can   try the tables & columns and search for Task table ,Use Edit to see what fields are available type,data length etc.This also gives you the option to see the schema map(Show Schema Map) which basically tells how many referencing or referenced /extending or extended tables etc.. are there for Task which could help you analyze the performance impact.

[leochavez]

Your answers were helpful, but I guess what I'm after is the ability to view table structure information directly from a command line or GUI.   Something along the lines of the MySQL command 'desc task', but I don't believe accessing the DB directly is feasible at this point.

Regardless, thank you both for responding.

- Leo

[williamsun]

You could do this through the Background Script area, but running freeform script is not recommended.

The following script, for example, will give you the fields of the incident and task tables.

var schema = new GlideRecord('sys_dictionary');

schema.addQuery('name','IN','incident,task');

schema.query();

while(schema.next()){

  gs.print(schema.name + '|' + schema.element + '|' + schema.column_label + '|' + schema.internal_type);

}

If your "Scripts - Background" module is missing, you can create it by using this https://yourinstance.service-now.com/sys.scripts.do

You can also add whatever columns you want in the gs.print line.