Can someone explain things a little better to me? How do I show the structure of a table?
I run the select * from table
; and of course it displays all that's in the table. But, I am being asked to show the structure of the table. What does that mean, and what is the command?
Here's my table below.
SQL> select * from dept;
DEPTNO DNAME LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
10 ACCOUNTING NEW YORK
20 RESEARCH DALLAS
30 SALES CHICAGO
40 OPERATIONS BOSTON
SQL>
SQL Server: sp_help table_name (or sp_columns table_name for only columns) Oracle DB2: desc table_name or describe table_name. MySQL: describe table_name (or show columns from table_name for only columns)
- The structure of a table can be viewed using the DESCRIBE TABLE_NAME command. - Provides a description of the specified table or view. For a list of tables in the current schema, use the Show Tables command.
The tables are the database objects that behave as containers for the data, in which the data will be logically organized in rows and columns format. Each row is considered as an entity that is described by the columns that hold the attributes of the entity.
Try this out: describe table_name
To list columns and data types, I typically use
SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE FROM ALL_TAB_COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='your_table_name';
It's been a while since I've worked with Oracle though. ALL_TAB_COLUMNS
might actually be ALL_TAB_COLS
.
If you need to display the full CREATE TABLE
statement, see How to get Oracle create table statement in SQL*Plus
You can use sqlplus command describe <SCHEMA_OWNER.TABLE>
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14357/ch12019.htm
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