How can I describe a table in Oracle without using the DESCRIBE command?

Question

I\'m having a hard time with a class I am taking. We need to write an Oracle script that will act just like the DESCRIBE command. The book we are using describes how to work

Answer 1

Newly introduced in Oracle SQLcl is the information command or simply INFO table_name. It has a simple syntax like DESC[RIBE]:

SQL> info
INFORMATION
--------

This command is like describe but with more details about the objects requested.

INFO[RMATION] {[schema.]object[@connect_identifier]}
INFO+ will show column statistics

Its output is far superior and descriptive compared to DESCRIBE. It Lists more detailed information about the column definitions for a table, view or synonym, or the specifications for a function or procedure.

For eg: This is the output I get in SQLcl: Release 18.1.1 when I run

info employees

SQL> info employees;
TABLE: EMPLOYEES 
     LAST ANALYZED:2018-05-26 15:07:58.0 
     ROWS         :107 
     SAMPLE SIZE  :107 
     INMEMORY     :DISABLED 
     COMMENTS     :employees table. Contains 107 rows. References with departments, 
                       jobs, job_history tables. Contains a self reference. 

Columns 
NAME             DATA TYPE           NULL  DEFAULT    COMMENTS
*EMPLOYEE_ID     NUMBER(6,0)         No               Primary key of employees table.
 FIRST_NAME      VARCHAR2(20 BYTE)   Yes              First name of the employee. A not null column.
 LAST_NAME       VARCHAR2(25 BYTE)   No               Last name of the employee. A not null column.
 EMAIL           VARCHAR2(25 BYTE)   No               Email id of the employee
 PHONE_NUMBER    VARCHAR2(20 BYTE)   Yes              Phone number of the employee; includes country
                                                      code and area code
 HIRE_DATE       DATE                No               Date when the employee started on this job. A not
                                                      null column.
 JOB_ID          VARCHAR2(10 BYTE)   No               Current job of the employee; foreign key to job_id
                                                      column of the jobs table. A not null column.
 SALARY          NUMBER(8,2)         Yes              Monthly salary of the employee. Must be greater
                                                      than zero (enforced by constraint emp_salary_min)
 COMMISSION_PCT  NUMBER(2,2)         Yes              Commission percentage of the employee; Only
                                                      employees in sales department elgible for
                                                      commission percentage
 MANAGER_ID      NUMBER(6,0)         Yes              Manager id of the employee; has same domain as
                                                      manager_id in departments table. Foreign key to
                                                      employee_id column of employees table.(useful for
                                                      reflexive joins and CONNECT BY query)
 DEPARTMENT_ID   NUMBER(4,0)         Yes              Department id where employee works; foreign key to
                                                      department_id column of the departments table

Indexes
INDEX_NAME             UNIQUENESS   STATUS   FUNCIDX_STATUS   COLUMNS                 
HR.EMP_JOB_IX          NONUNIQUE    VALID                     JOB_ID                  
HR.EMP_NAME_IX         NONUNIQUE    VALID                     LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME   
HR.EMP_EMAIL_UK        UNIQUE       VALID                     EMAIL                   
HR.EMP_EMP_ID_PK       UNIQUE       VALID                     EMPLOYEE_ID             
HR.EMP_MANAGER_IX      NONUNIQUE    VALID                     MANAGER_ID              
HR.EMP_DEPARTMENT_IX   NONUNIQUE    VALID                     DEPARTMENT_ID           


References
TABLE_NAME    CONSTRAINT_NAME   DELETE_RULE   STATUS    DEFERRABLE       VALIDATED   GENERATED   
DEPARTMENTS   DEPT_MGR_FK       NO ACTION     ENABLED   NOT DEFERRABLE   VALIDATED   USER NAME   
EMPLOYEES     EMP_MANAGER_FK    NO ACTION     ENABLED   NOT DEFERRABLE   VALIDATED   USER NAME   
JOB_HISTORY   JHIST_EMP_FK      NO ACTION     ENABLED   NOT DEFERRABLE   VALIDATED   USER NAME   

Here is a screen shot with info+: