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    <p>The <code>spt_values</code> table is not mentioned in the the SQL Server documentation but it goes back to the Sybase days and there is some <a href="http://infocenter.sybase.com/archive/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.help.ase_15.0.sag1/html/sag1/sag126.htm" rel="noreferrer">extremely minimal documentation</a> in the Sybase online docs that can be summed up in this comment:</p> <blockquote> <p>To see how it is used, execute sp_helptext and look at the text for one of the system procedures that references it.</p> </blockquote> <p>In other words, read the code and work it out for yourself. </p> <p>If you poke around the system stored procedures and examine the table data itself, it's fairly clear that the table is used to translate codes into readable strings (among other things). Or as the Sybase documentation linked above puts it, "to convert internal system values [...] into human-readable format"</p> <p>The table is also <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp#q=site:msdn.com+spt_values" rel="noreferrer">sometimes used</a> in code snippets in MSDN blogs - but never in formal documentation - usually as a convenient source of a list of numbers. But as discussed <a href="https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/11506/why-are-numbers-tables-invaluable">elsewhere</a>, creating your own source of numbers is a safer and more reliable solution than using an undocumented system table. There is even <a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedbackdetail/view/258733" rel="noreferrer">a Connect request</a> to provide a 'proper', documented number table in SQL Server itself.</p> <p>Anyway, the table is entirely undocumented so there is no significant value in knowing anything about it, at least from a practical standpoint: the next servicepack or upgrade might change it completely. Intellectual curiosity is something else, of course :-)</p>
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    1. POWhat is the purpose of system table master..spt_values and what are the meanings of its values?
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    1. POWhat is the purpose of system table master..spt_values and what are the meanings of its values?
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    1. COIt is heavily used by the system sprocs, no chance of it changing.
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    2. CO@PerformanceDBA: you're probably right (after all, the table has presumably been there from version 4.x or earlier all the way through to 2008) but that is still no guarantee that Microsoft won't change it in future. Relying on undocumented features always has some risk, even if it's a small one.
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    3. COI did not vote you down. I disagreed with one statement. It is not worth arguing about, since you refuse to address my point that it is **heavily used by MS in their system stored procs** and therefore removal will require those to be written, which is as likely as a snowball's chance in hell. Read my other Answer for further details. There is no guarantee that MS will exist in the future ;-)
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