SHOW TABLES

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The SHOW TABLES statement lists the schema, table name, table type, owner, and estimated row count for the tables or views in a schema or database.

Tip:

Estimating the number of rows in a table costs resources. To improve the performance of SHOW TABLES queries, disable row-count estimation by setting the sql.show_tables.estimated_row_count.enabled cluster setting to false before executing a SHOW TABLES statement.

Note:

While a table or view is being dropped, SHOW TABLES will list the object with a (dropped) suffix.

Synopsis

SHOW TABLES FROM database_name . schema_name WITH COMMENT

Required privileges

The SELECT privilege on a table is required to list it with SHOW TABLES.

Parameters

Parameter Description
database_name The name of the database for which to show tables.
schema_name The name of the schema for which to show tables.

When a database_name and schema_name are omitted, the tables of the current schema in the current database are listed.

SHOW TABLES will attempt to find a schema with the specified name first. If that fails, it will try to find a database with that name instead, and list the tables of its public schema. For more details, see Name Resolution.

Examples

Setup

The following examples use MovR, a fictional vehicle-sharing application, to demonstrate CockroachDB SQL statements. For more information about the MovR example application and dataset, see MovR: A Global Vehicle-sharing App.

To follow along, run cockroach demo to start a temporary, in-memory cluster with the movr dataset preloaded:

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$ cockroach demo

Show tables in the current database

SHOW TABLES uses the current schema public set by default in search_path:

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> SHOW TABLES;
  schema_name |         table_name         | type  | estimated_row_count
--------------+----------------------------+-------+----------------------
  public      | promo_codes                | table |                1000
  public      | rides                      | table |                 500
  public      | user_promo_codes           | table |                   0
  public      | users                      | table |                  50
  public      | vehicle_location_histories | table |                1000
  public      | vehicles                   | table |                  15
(6 rows)

Alternatively, within the built-in SQL shell, you can use the \dt shell command:

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> \dt
  schema_name |         table_name         | type  | estimated_row_count
--------------+----------------------------+-------+----------------------
  public      | promo_codes                | table |                1000
  public      | rides                      | table |                 500
  public      | user_promo_codes           | table |                   0
  public      | users                      | table |                  50
  public      | vehicle_location_histories | table |                1000
  public      | vehicles                   | table |                  15
(6 rows)

Show tables in a different schema

You can show the tables in schemas other than the current schema. You can also show the schema by table:

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> SHOW TABLES FROM movr.information_schema;
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> SHOW TABLES FROM information_schema;

Because movr is the current database, these statements return the same output:

     schema_name     |            table_name             | type  | estimated_row_count
---------------------+-----------------------------------+-------+----------------------
  information_schema | administrable_role_authorizations | table |                NULL
  information_schema | applicable_roles                  | table |                NULL
  information_schema | check_constraints                 | table |                NULL
  information_schema | column_privileges                 | table |                NULL
  ...
(23 rows)

Show tables in a different database

You can also show tables from a different database.

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> SHOW TABLES FROM system.public;
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> SHOW TABLES FROM system;

Because public is the current schema, these statements return the same output:

  schema_name |           table_name            | type  | estimated_row_count
--------------+---------------------------------+-------+----------------------
  public      | comments                        | table |                NULL
  public      | descriptor                      | table |                NULL
  public      | eventlog                        | table |                NULL
  public      | jobs                            | table |                NULL
  ...
(29 rows)

Show user-defined tables with comments

You can use COMMENT ON to add comments on a table.

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> COMMENT ON TABLE users IS 'This table contains information about users.';

To view a table's comments:

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> SHOW TABLES FROM movr WITH COMMENT;
  schema_name |         table_name         | type  | estimated_row_count |                   comment
--------------+----------------------------+-------+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------
  public      | promo_codes                | table |                1000 |
  public      | rides                      | table |                 500 |
  public      | user_promo_codes           | table |                   0 |
  public      | users                      | table |                  50 | This table contains information about users.
  public      | vehicle_location_histories | table |                1000 |
  public      | vehicles                   | table |                  15 |
(6 rows)

You can also view comments on a table with SHOW CREATE:

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> SHOW CREATE TABLE users;
  table_name |                             create_statement
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  users      | CREATE TABLE users (
             |     id UUID NOT NULL,
             |     city VARCHAR NOT NULL,
             |     name VARCHAR NULL,
             |     address VARCHAR NULL,
             |     credit_card VARCHAR NULL,
             |     CONSTRAINT "primary" PRIMARY KEY (city ASC, id ASC),
             |     FAMILY "primary" (id, city, name, address, credit_card)
             | );
             | COMMENT ON TABLE users IS 'This table contains information about users.'
(1 row)

For more information, see COMMENT ON.

Show virtual tables with comments

The virtual tables in the pg_catalog, information_schema, and crdb_internal schemas contain useful comments, often with links to further documentation.

To view virtual tables with comments and documentation links, use SHOW TABLES FROM <virtual schema> WITH COMMENT:

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> SHOW TABLES FROM information_schema WITH COMMENT;
     schema_name     |            table_name             | type  | estimated_row_count |                                                              comment
---------------------+-----------------------------------+-------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  information_schema | administrable_role_authorizations | table |                NULL | roles for which the current user has admin option
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/v20.2/information-schema.html#administrable_role_authorizations
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/infoschema-administrable-role-authorizations.html
  information_schema | applicable_roles                  | table |                NULL | roles available to the current user
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/v20.2/information-schema.html#applicable_roles
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/infoschema-applicable-roles.html
  information_schema | check_constraints                 | table |                NULL | check constraints
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/v20.2/information-schema.html#check_constraints
                     |                                   |       |                     | https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/infoschema-check-constraints.html
...
(23 rows)

See also


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