Thanks Mike. I appreciate your assistance on this question. I've also learned alot from many of the other posts you make here.

Al


>First, Have you looked at using SQL-DMO?
>
>When I read your question, I asked myself how SEM flags the proper columns as participating in the PK. Using the SQL Profiler, I noticed a stored proc called "sp_MShelpcolumns." This proc is used by the SEM to gather various information about the specified table. The usage of the proc can be determined with the following call:
>
>

EXECUTE master..sp_MShelpcolumns '?'

>
>And returns the following:
>
>

>Usage:  sp_MShelpcolumns @tablename, @flags int = 0
> where @flags is a bitmask of:
> 0x0200		= No DRI (ignore Checks, Primary/Foreign/Unique Keys, etc.)
> 0x0400		= UDDTs --> Base type
> 0x80000		= TimestampToBinary (convert timestamp cols to binary(8))
> 0x40000000	= No Identity attribute
>

>
>The call from the SEM looked like this:
>

sp_MShelpcolumns N'dbo.authors', null, 'id', 1

>
>'id' goes into a parameter called @orderby. The source has the following comment for the last parameter - @flags2:
>
>/*** @flags2 added for DaVinci uses. If the bit isn't set, use 6.5 ***/
>
>The result set contains a column called col_flags. If the column participates in the PK, the third bit will be set as the following source shows:
>
>

>/* Determine if the column is in the primary key */
>if (@flags & 0x0200 = 0 and (OBJECTPROPERTY(@objid, N'TableHasPrimaryKey') <> 0)) begin
>		declare @indid int
>		select @indid = indid from dbo.sysindexes i where i.id = @objid and i.status & 0x0800 <> 0
>		if (@indid is not null)
>			update #sphelpcols set col_flags = col_flags | 0x0004
>			from #sphelpcols c, dbo.sysindexkeys i
>				where i.id = @objid and i.indid = @indid and i.colid = c.col_id
>

>
>I'd consider calling this proc to retrieve the information that you're looking for to be about a half-step safer than getting it from the system tables directly.
>
>-Mike