Show tables, describe tables equivalent in redshift - amazon-web-services

Question

I'm new to aws, can anyone tell me what are redshifts' equivalents to mysql commands?
show tables -- redshift command
describe table_name -- redshift command

Answer 1

All the information can be found in a PG_TABLE_DEF table, documentation.
Listing all tables in a public schema (default) - show tables equivalent:
SELECT DISTINCT tablename
FROM pg_table_def
WHERE schemaname = 'public'
ORDER BY tablename;
Description of all the columns from a table called table_name - describe table equivalent:
SELECT *
FROM pg_table_def
WHERE tablename = 'table_name'
AND schemaname = 'public';
Update:
As pointed by #Kishan Pandey 's answer, if you are looking for details of a schema different by public, you need to set search_path to my_schema. (show search_path display current search path)
Listing tables in my_schema schema:
set search_path to my_schema;
select * from pg_table_def;

Answer 2

I had to select from the information schema to get details of my tables and columns; in case it helps anyone:
SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = 'myschema';
SELECT * FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'myschema' AND table_name = 'mytable';

Answer 3

Or simply:
\dt to show tables
\d+ <table name> to describe a table
Edit: Works using the psql command line client

Answer 4

Tomasz Tybulewicz answer is good way to go.
SELECT * FROM pg_table_def WHERE tablename = 'YOUR_TABLE_NAME' AND schemaname = 'YOUR_SCHEMA_NAME';
If schema name is not defined in search path , that query will show empty result.
Please first check search path by below code.
SHOW SEARCH_PATH
If schema name is not defined in search path , you can reset search path.
SET SEARCH_PATH to '$user', public, YOUR_SCEHMA_NAME

Answer 5

You can use - desc / to see the view/table definition in Redshift. I have been using Workbench/J as a SQL client for Redshift and it gives the definition in the Messages tab adjacent to Result tab.

Answer 6

In the following post, I documented queries to retrieve TABLE and COLUMN comments from Redshift.
https://sqlsylvia.wordpress.com/2017/04/29/redshift-comment-views-documenting-data/
Enjoy!
Table Comments
SELECT n.nspname AS schema_name
, pg_get_userbyid(c.relowner) AS table_owner
, c.relname AS table_name
, CASE WHEN c.relkind = 'v' THEN 'view' ELSE 'table' END
AS table_type
, d.description AS table_description
FROM pg_class As c
LEFT JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
LEFT JOIN pg_tablespace t ON t.oid = c.reltablespace
LEFT JOIN pg_description As d
ON (d.objoid = c.oid AND d.objsubid = 0)
WHERE c.relkind IN('r', 'v') AND d.description > ''
ORDER BY n.nspname, c.relname ;
Column Comments
SELECT n.nspname AS schema_name
, pg_get_userbyid(c.relowner) AS table_owner
, c.relname AS table_name
, a.attname AS column_name
, d.description AS column_description
FROM pg_class AS c
INNER JOIN pg_attribute As a ON c.oid = a.attrelid
INNER JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
LEFT JOIN pg_tablespace t ON t.oid = c.reltablespace
LEFT JOIN pg_description As d
ON (d.objoid = c.oid AND d.objsubid = a.attnum)
WHERE c.relkind IN('r', 'v')
AND a.attname NOT
IN ('cmax', 'oid', 'cmin', 'deletexid', 'ctid', 'tableoid','xmax', 'xmin', 'insertxid')
ORDER BY n.nspname, c.relname, a.attname;

Answer 7

Shortcut
\d for show all tables
\d tablename to describe table
\? for more shortcuts for redshift

Answer 8

redshift now support show table
show table analytics.dw_users
https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=8641

Answer 9

You can simply use the command below to describe a table.
desc table-name
or
desc schema-name.table-name