Updating so-called 'column statistics' for the whole SQL Server database

Definitely, statistics in SQL Server are vital to ensure stable database performance as a whole. Every DBA must know the importance of keeping statistics up to date, however, not everyone who is in charge of a database knows much about it, especially, those who do not have this role or are DBA by accident. So, I will just mention that statistics are objects that contain data distribution, density, selectivity, cardinality, etc. for all columns that were at least once queried or linked to indexes. This information helps the SQL optimizer make the right decision of what indexes and resources should use so as to execute and process the queries as fast as possible. Put differently, statistics allow SQL optimizer to create the best possible execution plan to run queries efficiently, otherwise, when statistics are not up to date bad execution plans may be created which will make inefficient use of resources bringing down the performance of the whole database and, even worse the whole server. So, it is a basic task to routinely update statistics at least once a month as part of your database maintenance tasks.
It is worth noting that statistics that linked to indexes (so-called 'index statistics') are full updated automatically when indexes are rebuilt. So, those statistics do not need explicit update. Nevertheless, statistics linked to columns (so-called 'column statistics') still need of an explicit update and this is what we need to do after rebuilding all the indexes. Thinking about it, today I am going to share a script to only run the update of columns statistics:

SET NOCOUNT ON     
DECLARE @schema_name varchar(max)      
DECLARE @table_name varchar(max)     
DECLARE @stat_name varchar(max)        
DECLARE @update_stat_cmd varchar(max)        
DECLARE @update_stat_msg_header   varchar(max)      
DECLARE update_stat_cursor CURSOR FOR    
          select  schema_name(o.[schema_id]),  object_name(s1.[object_id]) , s1.name   
          from (  
            select s.[object_id], s.name from sys.stats s  
            left join sys.indexes i on s.name=i.name  
            where i.name is null) s1  
          inner join sys.objects o on o.[object_id]=s1.[object_id]  
          where  o.type='U'  
          order by schema_name(o.[schema_id]),  object_name(s1.[object_id]) , s1.name   
  
       
OPEN update_stat_cursor        
FETCH NEXT FROM update_stat_cursor INTO  @schema_name, @table_name,  @stat_name         
WHILE (@@fetch_status = 0)        
  BEGIN    
       DECLARE @ini DATETIME, @fin DATETIME     
       SET @update_stat_msg_header =  '->Updating ['+ RTRIM(@schema_name)  +'].[' + RTRIM(@table_name) + ']([' +@stat_name + '])'      
       PRINT @update_stat_msg_header    
       SET @update_stat_cmd ='UPDATE STATISTICS ['+ RTRIM(@schema_name)  +'].[' + RTRIM(@table_name) + ']([' +@stat_name + '])'    
       SET @ini=GETDATE()    
       EXEC (@update_stat_cmd)      
       SET @fin=GETDATE()    
      
       FETCH NEXT FROM update_stat_cursor INTO @schema_name, @table_name,  @stat_name            
  END        
 
PRINT ' '       
PRINT '----------------------------------------------------------------------------- '        
SET @update_stat_msg_header = '*************  THERE ARE NO MORE STATISTICS TO BE UPDATED **************'         
PRINT @update_stat_msg_header        
PRINT ' '        
PRINT 'All statistics not linked to any index were rebuilt!'        
  
CLOSE update_stat_cursor        
DEALLOCATE update_stat_cursor    
SET NOCOUNT OFF

That is all for now. Thanks for reading. Let me know any remarks you may have. Stay tuned.