PostgreSQL "DESCRIBE TABLE"

Try this (in the psql command-line tool):

\d+ tablename

See the manual for more info.

In addition to the PostgreSQL way (\d 'something' or \dt 'table' or \ds 'sequence' and so on)

The SQL standard way, as shown here:

select column_name, data_type, character_maximum_length, column_default, is_nullable
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where table_name = '<name of table>';

It's supported by many db engines.

If you want to obtain it from query instead of psql, you can query the catalog schema. Here's a complex query that does that:

SELECT  
    f.attnum AS number,  
    f.attname AS name,  
    f.attnum,  
    f.attnotnull AS notnull,  
    pg_catalog.format_type(f.atttypid,f.atttypmod) AS type,  
    CASE  
        WHEN p.contype = 'p' THEN 't'  
        ELSE 'f'  
    END AS primarykey,  
    CASE  
        WHEN p.contype = 'u' THEN 't'  
        ELSE 'f'
    END AS uniquekey,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN g.relname
    END AS foreignkey,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.confkey
    END AS foreignkey_fieldnum,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN g.relname
    END AS foreignkey,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.conkey
    END AS foreignkey_connnum,
    CASE
        WHEN f.atthasdef = 't' THEN d.adsrc
    END AS default
FROM pg_attribute f  
    JOIN pg_class c ON c.oid = f.attrelid  
    JOIN pg_type t ON t.oid = f.atttypid  
    LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d ON d.adrelid = c.oid AND d.adnum = f.attnum  
    LEFT JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace  
    LEFT JOIN pg_constraint p ON p.conrelid = c.oid AND f.attnum = ANY (p.conkey)  
    LEFT JOIN pg_class AS g ON p.confrelid = g.oid  
WHERE c.relkind = 'r'::char  
    AND n.nspname = '%s'  -- Replace with Schema name  
    AND c.relname = '%s'  -- Replace with table name  
    AND f.attnum > 0 ORDER BY number
;

It's pretty complex but it does show you the power and flexibility of the PostgreSQL system catalog and should get you on your way to pg_catalog mastery ;-). Be sure to change out the %s's in the query. The first is Schema and the second is the table name.

You can do that with a psql slash command:

 \d myTable describe table

It also works for other objects:

 \d myView describe view
 \d myIndex describe index
 \d mySequence describe sequence

Source: faqs.org

The psql equivalent of DESCRIBE TABLE is \d table.

See the psql portion of the PostgreSQL manual for more details.

This should be the solution:

SELECT * FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'your_schema'
   AND table_name   = 'your_table'

You can use this :

SELECT attname 
FROM pg_attribute,pg_class 
WHERE attrelid=pg_class.oid 
AND relname='TableName' 
AND attstattarget <>0; 

To improve on the other answer's SQL query (which is great!), here is a revised query. It also includes constraint names, inheritance information, and a data types broken into it's constituent parts (type, length, precision, scale). It also filters out columns that have been dropped (which still exist in the database).

SELECT
    n.nspname as schema,
    c.relname as table,
    f.attname as column,  
    f.attnum as column_id,  
    f.attnotnull as not_null,
    f.attislocal not_inherited,
    f.attinhcount inheritance_count,
    pg_catalog.format_type(f.atttypid,f.atttypmod) AS data_type_full,
    t.typname AS data_type_name,
    CASE  
        WHEN f.atttypmod >= 0 AND t.typname <> 'numeric'THEN (f.atttypmod - 4) --first 4 bytes are for storing actual length of data
    END AS data_type_length, 
    CASE  
        WHEN t.typname = 'numeric' THEN (((f.atttypmod - 4) >> 16) & 65535)
    END AS numeric_precision,   
    CASE  
        WHEN t.typname = 'numeric' THEN ((f.atttypmod - 4)& 65535 )
    END AS numeric_scale,       
    CASE  
        WHEN p.contype = 'p' THEN 't'  
        ELSE 'f'  
    END AS is_primary_key,  
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'p' THEN p.conname
    END AS primary_key_name,
    CASE  
        WHEN p.contype = 'u' THEN 't'  
        ELSE 'f'
    END AS is_unique_key,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'u' THEN p.conname
    END AS unique_key_name,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN 't'
        ELSE 'f'
    END AS is_foreign_key,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.conname
    END AS foreignkey_name,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.confkey
    END AS foreign_key_columnid,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN g.relname
    END AS foreign_key_table,
    CASE
        WHEN p.contype = 'f' THEN p.conkey
    END AS foreign_key_local_column_id,
    CASE
        WHEN f.atthasdef = 't' THEN d.adsrc
    END AS default_value
FROM pg_attribute f  
    JOIN pg_class c ON c.oid = f.attrelid  
    JOIN pg_type t ON t.oid = f.atttypid  
    LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d ON d.adrelid = c.oid AND d.adnum = f.attnum  
    LEFT JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace  
    LEFT JOIN pg_constraint p ON p.conrelid = c.oid AND f.attnum = ANY (p.conkey)  
    LEFT JOIN pg_class AS g ON p.confrelid = g.oid  
WHERE c.relkind = 'r'::char  
    AND f.attisdropped = false
    AND n.nspname = '%s'  -- Replace with Schema name  
    AND c.relname = '%s'  -- Replace with table name  
    AND f.attnum > 0 
ORDER BY f.attnum
;

In postgres \d is used to describe the table structure.

e.g. \d schema_name.table_name

this command will provide you the basic info of table such as, columns, type and modifiers.

If you want more info about table use

\d+ schema_name.table_name

this will give you extra info such as, storage, stats target and description

When your table is not part of the default schema, you should write:

\d+ schema_name.table_name

Otherwise, you would get the error saying that "the relation doesn not exist."

When your table name starts with a capital letter you should put your table name in the quotation.

Example: \d "Users"

1) PostgreSQL DESCRIBE TABLE using psql

In psql command line tool, \d table_name or \d+ table_name to find the information on columns of a table

2) PostgreSQL DESCRIBE TABLE using information_schema

SELECT statement to query the column_names,datatype,character maximum length of the columns table in the information_schema database;

SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where table_name = 'tablename';

For more information https://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-describe-table/

I'll add the pg_dump command even thou the psql command was requested. because it generate an output more common to previous MySQl users.

# sudo -u postgres pg_dump --table=my_table_name --schema-only mydb