SQL Server: Checking the datatype of a column

Question

How to check if a column in a table has a specific datatype?

For example, how to check if a column in SQL Server table is of datatype char(11)?

Answer 1

select COLUMN_NAME 
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where DATA_TYPE = 'char'
and CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH = 11
and TABLE_NAME = 'your_table'

using syscolumns:

SELECT name FROM SYSCOLUMNS
where length = 11
and xtype = 175 --char type

Answer 2

select case when DATA_TYPE= 'char' then 'T' else 'F' end,    
case when CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH = 11 then 'T' else 'F' end    
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS     
where COLUMN_NAME = 'MY_COLUMN_NAME'     
and TABLE_NAME = 'MY_TABLE_NAME'