How do I get a list of column names from a psycopg2 cursor?

Question

I would like a general way to generate column labels directly from the selected column names, and recall seeing that python\'s psycopg2 module supports this feature.

Answer 1

To get the column names in a separate query, you can query the information_schema.columns table.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import psycopg2

if __name__ == '__main__':
  DSN = 'host=YOUR_DATABASE_HOST port=YOUR_DATABASE_PORT dbname=YOUR_DATABASE_NAME user=YOUR_DATABASE_USER'

  column_names = []

  with psycopg2.connect(DSN) as connection:
      with connection.cursor() as cursor:
          cursor.execute("select column_name from information_schema.columns where table_schema = 'YOUR_SCHEMA_NAME' and table_name='YOUR_TABLE_NAME'")
          column_names = [row[0] for row in cursor]

  print("Column names: {}\n".format(column_names))

To get column names in the same query as data rows, you can use the description field of the cursor:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import psycopg2

if __name__ == '__main__':
  DSN = 'host=YOUR_DATABASE_HOST port=YOUR_DATABASE_PORT dbname=YOUR_DATABASE_NAME user=YOUR_DATABASE_USER'

  column_names = []
  data_rows = []

  with psycopg2.connect(DSN) as connection:
    with connection.cursor() as cursor:
      cursor.execute("select field1, field2, fieldn from table1")
      column_names = [desc[0] for desc in cursor.description]
      for row in cursor:
        data_rows.append(row)

  print("Column names: {}\n".format(column_names))