Re: dictionary?

> How do you accomplish this in pg?
>
> 1. Is there a table like the Oracle dictionary?
> 2. Is there a way to describe a table?
>
> I use these all the time in oracle.  When I can't remember where
> some management metric is located in the system, I sort of grep for
> it based on a keyword.  For example, if I need to find out about some
> snapshot (copy of a table from another db), I do this:
>
>
> select table_name from dictionary where table_name like '%SNAPSHOT%';
>
> TABLE_NAME
> ------------------------------
> ALL_REGISTERED_SNAPSHOTS
> ALL_SNAPSHOTS
> ...
>
>
> SQL> describe ALL_SNAPSHOTS
>  Name                                      Null?    Type
>  ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
>  OWNER                                     NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
>  NAME                                      NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
>  TABLE_NAME                                NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
> ...
>
>
> select name from ALL_SNAPSHOTS;
> ...


How about:

\d tablename
\dt tablename

For more information check out the "Meta-Commands" from:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/app-psql.html

Regards,

Richard Broersma Jr.