Re: table column information

Hi,

> Use getMetadata of java.sql.Connection. According to jdocs, the
> DatabaseMetaData object can probably give you what you are looking for.

Carl <|};-)>

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Scot L. Harris
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 1:22 PM
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: [GENERAL] table column information

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.

Trying to find something the equivalent of doing a \d tablename in psql.

I did see a function to pull meta data but that is in a 4.3 version of php.

I have also been trying to track down some information on the pga_layout
table. This appears to be a system table that might contain the information
I want but it does not list every table I have created. Not sure what that
is.

The books I have do not say much if anything about such system tables.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

--
Scot L. Harris <webid(at)cfl(dot)rr(dot)com>

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