RE: DESCRIBE?

Thanks to all responders, particularly Jonathan. The first para of his first citation is:-

QUOTE You've just taken on responsibility for a new database. New to you, that is -- the database has actually been running for some years. What's the first thing you want to do? If you're like me, you probably want to get a handle on just what it is that you have. What's in the database? How big is it? Who are the users and how many of them are there? The answers to all of these questions lie in the Oracle data dictionary.

UNQUOTE How truly deeply true...

Tx & rgds, GStC.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Gennick [mailto:jonathan_at_gennick.com] Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 2:00 PM
To: Graeme St. Clair
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: DESCRIBE?

Hello Graeme,

DESCRIBE is a command that has meaning only to Oracle's interactive query utility called "SQL*Plus".

To get information about a database from a Perl script, you can use the data dictionary tables. You might find the following article helpful:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/10/28/data_dictionary.html

You can also got to otn.oracle.com, dig for the Oracle documentation, and then for the "Oracle Database Reference" manual, and in that you will find comprehensive descriptions of all the data dictionary tables and columns.

Best regards,

Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:jonathan_at_gennick.com

Join the Oracle-article list and receive one article on Oracle technologies per month by email. To join, visit
http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/oracle-article, or send email to Oracle-article-request_at_gennick.com and include the word "subscribe" in either the subject or body.

Monday, March 28, 2005, 11:48:12 AM, Graeme St. Clair (Graeme.St.Clair_at_hds.com) wrote:

GSC> I understand there is a "DESCRIBE my_data_base" command in Oracle 
GSC> SQL, and I assume it will return material describing the d-b in 
GSC> question.  Right so far?  If so, is it restricted in some way?  I'm 
GSC> finding I can issue SELECT from a Perl script but not DESCRIBE - I 
GSC> get ORA-00900: invalid SQL statement
GSC> (DBD: error possibly near <*> indicator at char 1 in '<*>DESCRIBE 
GSC> my_data_base').
 

GSC> Rgds, GStC.  

GSC> --
GSC> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l