Question about system tables

I'm just trying to run a little application using ORACLE to store some data. I just want to do a single access to some of the system tables just to know how many columns are in a table, but I do not find a system table with that information. Is there one? I know that I can get this information in another way, e.g.

select COLUMN_ID from ACCESSIBLE_COLUMNS A where TABLE_NAME = 'TEST' and not exists (select * from ACCESSIBLE_COLUMNS B where TABLE_NAME = 'TEST' and A.COLUMN_ID < B.COLUMN_ID);

But a simple select would be faster.

Thanks in advance for any help

Michael

-- 
Michael Meskes, Lehrstuhl fuer angewandte Mathematik insb. Informatik,
RWTH-Aachen, D 52056 Aachen, Germany
Email: meskes_at_ulysses.informatik.rwth-aachen.de