Metadata is data that describes other data. SQL Server exposes a large amount of metadata. This includes structural metadata, which describes every object, and descriptive metadata, which describes the data itself. Metadata is exposed through catalog views, information schema views, dynamic management views, dynamic management functions, system functions, and stored procedures. Metadata is the key to automation, as it allows you to create dynamic, intelligent scripts.
I will assume that you are familiar with basic metadata objects, such as sys.tables and sys.databases ...
