Check if a user-defined type already exists in PostgreSQL

Question

Say I have created some user-defined types in the DB,

i.e. CREATE TYPE abc ...

Is it then possible to determine if the user-defined type exists

Answer 1

I'm trying to do the same thing, ensure a type exists.

I started psql with the --echo-hidden (-E) option and entered \dT:

$ psql -E
psql (9.1.9)
testdb=> \dT
********* QUERY **********
SELECT n.nspname as "Schema",
  pg_catalog.format_type(t.oid, NULL) AS "Name",
  pg_catalog.obj_description(t.oid, 'pg_type') as "Description"
FROM pg_catalog.pg_type t
     LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n ON n.oid = t.typnamespace
WHERE (t.typrelid = 0 OR (SELECT c.relkind = 'c' FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c WHERE c.oid = t.typrelid))
  AND NOT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM pg_catalog.pg_type el WHERE el.oid = t.typelem AND el.typarray = t.oid)
      AND n.nspname <> 'pg_catalog'
      AND n.nspname <> 'information_schema'
  AND pg_catalog.pg_type_is_visible(t.oid)
ORDER BY 1, 2;
**************************
 List of data types
 Schema |       Name       | Description 
--------+------------------+-------------
 public | errmsg_agg_state | 
(1 row)

If you are using schemas and search_path (I am) then you'll probably need to keep the pg_catalog.pg_type_is_visible(t.oid) check. I don't know what all the conditions in the WHERE are doing, but they didn't seem relevant to my case. Currently using:

SELECT 1 FROM pg_catalog.pg_type as t
   WHERE typname = 'mytype' AND pg_catalog.pg_type_is_visible(t.oid);