DESCRIBE TABLE

Description

DESCRIBE TABLE statement returns the basic metadata information of a table. The metadata information includes column name, column type and column comment. Optionally a partition spec or column name may be specified to return the metadata pertaining to a partition or column respectively.

Syntax

{ DESC | DESCRIBE } [ TABLE ] [ format ] table_identifier [ partition_spec ] [ col_name ]

Parameters

Examples

-- Creates a table `customer`. Assumes current database is `salesdb`.
CREATE TABLE customer(
        cust_id INT,
        state VARCHAR(20),
        name STRING COMMENT 'Short name'
    )
    USING parquet
    PARTITIONED BY (state);
    
INSERT INTO customer PARTITION (state = 'AR') VALUES (100, 'Mike');
    
-- Returns basic metadata information for unqualified table `customer`
DESCRIBE TABLE customer;
+-----------------------+---------+----------+
|               col_name|data_type|   comment|
+-----------------------+---------+----------+
|                cust_id|      int|      null|
|                   name|   string|Short name|
|                  state|   string|      null|
|# Partition Information|         |          |
|             # col_name|data_type|   comment|
|                  state|   string|      null|
+-----------------------+---------+----------+

-- Returns basic metadata information for qualified table `customer`
DESCRIBE TABLE salesdb.customer;
+-----------------------+---------+----------+
|               col_name|data_type|   comment|
+-----------------------+---------+----------+
|                cust_id|      int|      null|
|                   name|   string|Short name|
|                  state|   string|      null|
|# Partition Information|         |          |
|             # col_name|data_type|   comment|
|                  state|   string|      null|
+-----------------------+---------+----------+

-- Returns additional metadata such as parent database, owner, access time etc.
DESCRIBE TABLE EXTENDED customer;
+----------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
|                    col_name|                     data_type|   comment|
+----------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
|                     cust_id|                           int|      null|
|                        name|                        string|Short name|
|                       state|                        string|      null|
|     # Partition Information|                              |          |
|                  # col_name|                     data_type|   comment|
|                       state|                        string|      null|
|                            |                              |          |
|# Detailed Table Information|                              |          |
|                    Database|                       default|          |
|                       Table|                      customer|          |
|                       Owner|                 <TABLE OWNER>|          |
|                Created Time|  Tue Apr 07 22:56:34 JST 2020|          |
|                 Last Access|                       UNKNOWN|          |
|                  Created By|               <SPARK VERSION>|          |
|                        Type|                       MANAGED|          |
|                    Provider|                       parquet|          |
|                    Location|file:/tmp/salesdb.db/custom...|          |
|               Serde Library|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                 InputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                OutputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|          Partition Provider|                       Catalog|          |
+----------------------------+------------------------------+----------+

-- Returns partition metadata such as partitioning column name, column type and comment.
DESCRIBE TABLE EXTENDED customer PARTITION (state = 'AR');
+------------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
|                      col_name|                     data_type|   comment|
+------------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
|                       cust_id|                           int|      null|
|                          name|                        string|Short name|
|                         state|                        string|      null|
|       # Partition Information|                              |          |
|                    # col_name|                     data_type|   comment|
|                         state|                        string|      null|
|                              |                              |          |
|# Detailed Partition Inform...|                              |          |
|                      Database|                       default|          |
|                         Table|                      customer|          |
|              Partition Values|                    [state=AR]|          |
|                      Location|file:/tmp/salesdb.db/custom...|          |
|                 Serde Library|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                   InputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                  OutputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|            Storage Properties|[serialization.format=1, pa...|          |
|          Partition Parameters|{transient_lastDdlTime=1586...|          |
|                  Created Time|  Tue Apr 07 23:05:43 JST 2020|          |
|                   Last Access|                       UNKNOWN|          |
|          Partition Statistics|                     659 bytes|          |
|                              |                              |          |
|         # Storage Information|                              |          |
|                      Location|file:/tmp/salesdb.db/custom...|          |
|                 Serde Library|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                   InputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
|                  OutputFormat|org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.i...|          |
+------------------------------+------------------------------+----------+

-- Returns the metadata for `name` column.
-- Optional `TABLE` clause is omitted and column is fully qualified.
DESCRIBE customer salesdb.customer.name;
+---------+----------+
|info_name|info_value|
+---------+----------+
| col_name|      name|
|data_type|    string|
|  comment|Short name|
+---------+----------+