Contents

Information schema

A special schema containing metadata about database objects

The information schema is a special schema with standard views containing information about the objects defined in the current database.

The information schema was added in PostgreSQL 7.4.

Usage

The information schema provides a mostly SQL-standard compliant way of accessing metadata about PostgreSQL database objects which should be stable across major releases. This provides a more stable interface than is available via PostgreSQL's system catalogue tables and views, however does not include information about PostgreSQL-specific features.

Change history

Work-in-progress

Examples

Base metadata about a table as exposed by the information_schema.tables view:

postgres=# CREATE TABLE foo (id int);
CREATE TABLE

postgres=# SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_name='foo';
-[ RECORD 1 ]----------------+-----------
table_catalog                | postgres
table_schema                 | public
table_name                   | foo
table_type                   | BASE TABLE
self_referencing_column_name | 
reference_generation         | 
user_defined_type_catalog    | 
user_defined_type_schema     | 
user_defined_type_name       | 
is_insertable_into           | YES
is_typed                     | NO
commit_action                |

Categories

System catalogue