Scribd
Upload
27 views3 pages

SQL - Is It Possible To See The Structure of Mulitple Table With A Single - Desc - Stack Overflow

You can query the user_tab_columns or all_tab_columns data dictionary views to see the structure of multiple tables with a single query. The query should include the table name in the select list and order by table name and column ID to mimic the output of the desc command. This allows viewing metadata for all or a list of specified tables at once rather than running desc individually for each table.

Uploaded by

soydeyudru
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
27 views3 pages

SQL - Is It Possible To See The Structure of Mulitple Table With A Single - Desc - Stack Overflow

You can query the user_tab_columns or all_tab_columns data dictionary views to see the structure of multiple tables with a single query. The query should include the table name in the select list and order by table name and column ID to mimic the output of the desc command. This allows viewing metadata for all or a list of specified tables at once rather than running desc individually for each table.

Uploaded by

soydeyudru
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Is it possible to see the structure of mulitple table with a single

"desc".
Asked 8 years, 9 months ago Modified 4 years, 2 months ago Viewed 615 times

Is it possible to see the structure of multiple table with a single "desc". i have created following table
my_contact, profession, interest,seeking,location etc. but rather then typing "desc" again and again i want
-1 to see the structure of selected table with the single query.

Is it possible in anyway?

sql oracle10g

Share Improve this question Follow asked Feb 17, 2015 at 18:29
user3657714
17

Not with the SQL*Plus describe command, but you can query the data dictionary - depends what you want to see.
– Alex Poole Feb 17, 2015 at 18:32

i simply want to see the structure of the table, not the data they contain – user3657714 Feb 17, 2015 at 18:36

The data dictionary contains the metadata for the tables, not the actual data. See Ben's answer on the question I
linked this to; just change the filter for a single table to a list of tables (with in ) or leave it out to see all tables.
You'll probably want to include the table name in the select list and order by, come to think of it... – Alex Poole Feb
17, 2015 at 18:38

can u please reopen this question. – user3657714 Feb 18, 2015 at 10:30

1 Answer Sorted by: Highest score (default)

You can't use the SQL*Plus describe command to get information about more then one object at a time.

On an old question, Ben gave a good overview of how to mimic that client command for a single table by
4
querying the relevant data dictionary view.

To get similar information for more than one table you would need to provide a list of table names, or
omit the table name filter altogether. But you probably also want to include the table name in the select
list so you know which column belongs to which table, and order the results by table name and column
ID, which will mimic the column order as shown by the SQL*Plus describe command.

This expands the data type display from Ben's answer a bit, and should be close to describe for most
data types; but with the addition of the table name:

select table_name as "Table",


column_name as "Column",
case when nullable = 'N' then 'NOT NULL' end as "Null?",
cast (data_type || case
when data_type in ('VARCHAR2', 'NVARCHAR2', 'CHAR', 'NCHAR')
then '(' || char_length || case when char_used = 'C' then ' CHAR' else ' BYTE'
end || ')'
when data_type in ('RAW', 'TIMESTAMP')
then '(' || data_length || ')'
when data_type in ('NUMBER')
and (data_precision is not null or data_scale is not null)
then '(' || coalesce(data_precision, 38) || case
when data_scale > 0 then ',' || data_scale
end || ')'
end as varchar2(30)) as "Type"
from user_tab_columns
where table_name in ('MY_CONTACT', 'PROFESSION', 'INTEREST', 'SEEKING', 'LOCATION')
order by table_name, column_id;

I've mocked up one of your table names using:

create table my_contact (


id number(38) primary key,
col1 varchar2(10 char),
col2 varchar2(32 byte),
col3 raw(64),
col4 number(5,2),
col5 number,
col6 number(*,3),
col7 number(*,0),
col8 clob,
col9 date,
col10 timestamp,
col11 timestamp(3),
col12 char
);

so with my query I see:

Table Column Null? Type


------------------------------ ------------------------------ -------- ----------------
--------------
MY_CONTACT ID NOT NULL NUMBER(38)
MY_CONTACT COL1 VARCHAR2(10
CHAR)
MY_CONTACT COL2 VARCHAR2(32
BYTE)
MY_CONTACT COL3 RAW(64)
MY_CONTACT COL4 NUMBER(5,2)
MY_CONTACT COL5 NUMBER
MY_CONTACT COL6 NUMBER(38,3)
MY_CONTACT COL7 NUMBER(38)
MY_CONTACT COL8 CLOB
MY_CONTACT COL9 DATE
MY_CONTACT COL10 TIMESTAMP(6)
MY_CONTACT COL11 TIMESTAMP(3)
MY_CONTACT COL12 CHAR(1)

Which is similar to desc :

SQL> desc my_contact


Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
ID NOT NULL NUMBER(38)
COL1 VARCHAR2(10 CHAR)
COL2 VARCHAR2(32)
COL3 RAW(64)
COL4 NUMBER(5,2)
COL5 NUMBER
COL6 NUMBER(38,3)
COL7 NUMBER(38)
COL8 CLOB
COL9 DATE
COL10 TIMESTAMP(6)
COL11 TIMESTAMP(3)
COL12 CHAR(1)

If you want to see all your tables then exclude the where clause. And if you want to see other people's
tables as well, query all_tab_columns and include the owner in the select list and order by clause; but
then you may want to exclude the built in accounts like SYS.

You could also make this a view or a function if you want to run it often but hide the complexity.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Aug 30, 2019 at 16:58 answered Feb 18, 2015 at 10:36
Alex Poole
185k 11 181 321

thanks alex for answering my dumb question. i have just started learning oracle sql – user3657714 Feb 18, 2015 at
13:35

You might also like