PostgreSQL "DESCRIBE TABLE"
In addition to the PostgreSQL way (\d 'something' or \dt 'table' or \ds 'sequence' and so on)
The SQL standard way, as shown here:
select column_name, data_type, character_maximum_length, column_default, is_nullable
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where table_name = '<name of table>';
It's supported by many db engines.
Try this (in the psql
command-line tool):
\d+ tablename
See the manual for more info.
If you want to obtain it from query instead of psql, you can query the catalog schema. Here's a complex query that does that:
SELECT
f.attnum AS number,
f.attname AS name,
f.attnum,
f.attnotnull AS notnull,
pg_catalog.format_type(f.atttypid,f.atttypmod) AS type,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'p' THEN 't'
ELSE 'f'
END AS primarykey,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'u' THEN 't'
ELSE 'f'
END AS uniquekey,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN g.relname
END AS foreignkey,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.confkey
END AS foreignkey_fieldnum,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN g.relname
END AS foreignkey,
CASE
WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.conkey
END AS foreignkey_connnum,
CASE
WHEN f.atthasdef = 't' THEN d.adsrc
END AS default
FROM pg_attribute f
JOIN pg_class c ON c.oid = f.attrelid
JOIN pg_type t ON t.oid = f.atttypid
LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d ON d.adrelid = c.oid AND d.adnum = f.attnum
LEFT JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
LEFT JOIN pg_constraint p ON p.conrelid = c.oid AND f.attnum = ANY (p.conkey)
LEFT JOIN pg_class AS g ON p.confrelid = g.oid
WHERE c.relkind = 'r'::char
AND n.nspname = '%s' -- Replace with Schema name
AND c.relname = '%s' -- Replace with table name
AND f.attnum > 0 ORDER BY number
;
It's pretty complex but it does show you the power and flexibility of the PostgreSQL system catalog and should get you on your way to pg_catalog mastery ;-). Be sure to change out the %s's in the query. The first is Schema and the second is the table name.