Just get column names from hive table

Question

I know that you can get column names from a table via the following trick in hive:

hive> set hive.cli.print.header=true; hive> select * from tablename; 

Is it also possible to just get the column names from the table?

I dislike having to change a setting for something I only need once.

My current solution is the following:

hive> set hive.cli.print.header=true; hive> select * from tablename; hive> set hive.cli.print.header=false; 

This seems too verbose and against the DRY-principle.

Answer 1

If you simply want to see the column names this one line should provide it without changing any settings:

describe database.tablename; 

However, if that doesn't work for your version of hive this code will provide it, but your default database will now be the database you are using:

use database; describe tablename;