Exploring Columns in a Portable Fashion

From: Patrick McManus <mcmanus_at_pat.nyser.net>
Date: 1995/12/29
Message-ID: <4c1oko$1fv_at_pat.nyser.net>#1/1

Given a table name I'd like to write an application to display the names of all of its columns and their datatypes. A little research into the matter shows that Oracle maintains this information in its data dictionary and is accessible through (user/all/dba)_tab_columns.

Here's the trick: I'd like to see if there is a semi-portable method between different rdbms's. Oracle is my development ground at the moment but I wanted to see if the procedure is dramatically different for Sybase, Ingres, et all.. (Any SQL92 based rdbms)

I don't mind a little special casing but if there is a consistent paradigm someone is aware of, it would help.

Thanks,
-P
--

Patrick R. McManus	NYSERNet, Inc.		Information Services
http://pat.nyser.net/~mcmanus		Systems and Network Programming

Looking for a job? Over 100,000 positions on http://www.ajb.dni.us * - You Kill Nostalgia, Xenophobic Fears. It's Now or Neverland. - * Received on Fri Dec 29 1995 - 00:00:00 CET