Re: table column information

ljb wrote:

>webid@cfl.rr.com wrote:
>
>
>>Currently using Postgresql 7.2.4-5.80 with php 4.2.2.-8.0.8 on a redhat
>>8.0 system.
>>
>>I am writing some php scripts where I want to generate a list of the
>>column names in a particular table that the user selects.  I could take
>>the brute force method and hard code the column names but then every
>>time I add a new table or modify an existing one I would have to modify
>>the code.  What I want is to have a generic function that given the
>>table name it will pull the column names for my use.
>>
>>I need to get the table column names for several tables I have setup.  I
>>know if I do a select * from tablename I can then use the pg_fieldname
>>function to pull the column names for all columns.
>>
>>But I don't think I want to select the entire contents of the table
>>every time I want to get the names of the columns.  I know this will
>>work but I think performance will be very poor.
>>...
>>
>>
>
>You almost got it - just do "select * from tablename where 0=1", which returns
>no rows but will give you the fieldnames. A portable and (I think)
>efficient way to get table column names.
>
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even more efficient (possibly not quite as portable but does work with
pgsql and mysql)

select * from tablename limit 0