Finding out where a list column is used in a site collection

There are times when you need to know where a specific list column is being used in your site collection. This is especially true for custom columns that you may have created. The following script can be used to find which lists are using a specific column name. (I posted this script on the SharePoint TechNet forum in response to a question.)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c") | out-null

[void][System.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

# set-up working variables...

# Enter your SharePoint site collection URL here...

$TargetSiteUrl = "http://sharepoint_site_collection_URL"

# Enter the list column name you want to find here...

$FieldToFind = "Title"

# Starting search

write-host "FieldName, ListName, ListURL"

$spSite = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($TargetSiteUrl)

$colWebsites = $spSite.AllWebs

foreach ($web in $colWebsites)
{

$colLists = $web.Lists

foreach ($list in $colLists)
{

$fields = $list.Fields

foreach ($item in $fields)
{

If ($item.Title.Contains($FieldToFind))
{
write-host  $item.Title, ";", $list.Title, ";", $list.DefaultViewUrl
}

}

}

}

write-host "Finished."