Difference between DESC & user_tab

From: Praveen <nospam_at_nospam.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 12:46:40 -0700
Message-ID: <clbo31$c2j$1@news1brm.Central.Sun.COM>

Hi..All,

When I do a DESC on a table , one of the columns shows the datatype(lenght) as Number(38). But when I look at the details of the column it shows something else. How does it come up with a different lenght Or where does desc pick it from when you do a DESC? Is there any other logic involved?

Column Details :

TABLE_NAME COLUMN_NAME
------------------------------ ------------------------------
DATA_TYPE DAT

---

DATA_TYPE_OWNER DATA_LENGTH DATA_PRECISION DATA_SCALE N COLUMN_ID DEFAULT_LENGTH
------------------------------ ----------- -------------- ---------- -

-------------- DATA_DEFAULT NUM_DISTINCT

LOW_VALUE
HIGH_VALUE DENSITY NUM_NULLS NUM_BUCKETS LAST_ANAL SAMPLE_SIZE
---------- ----------- --------- ----------- CHARACTER_SET_NAME CHAR_COL_DECL_LENGTH GLO USE AVG_COL_LEN
-------------------------------------------- -------------------- ---
- ----------- TEST_TABLE TEST_COLUMN NUMBER 22 0 N 4 3 C102 C106 .333333333 0 1 26-MAR-04 143 NO NO 2

TIA P/ Received on Fri Oct 22 2004 - 14:46:40 CDT

Difference between DESC & user_tab_columns