PostgreSQL: Show tables in PostgreSQL

From the psql command line interface,

First, choose your database

\c database_name

Then, this shows all tables in the current schema:

\dt

Programmatically (or from the psql interface too, of course):

SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_tables;

The system tables live in the pg_catalog database.

You can use PostgreSQL's interactive terminal Psql to show tables in PostgreSQL.

1. Start Psql

Usually you can run the following command to enter into psql:

psql DBNAME USERNAME

For example, psql template1 postgres

One situation you might have is: suppose you login as root, and you don't remember the database name. You can just enter first into Psql by running:

sudo -u postgres psql

In some systems, sudo command is not available, you can instead run either command below:

psql -U postgres
psql --username=postgres

2. Show tables

Now in Psql you could run commands such as:

1. \? list all the commands
2. \l list databases
3. \conninfo display information about current connection
4. \c [DBNAME] connect to new database, e.g., \c template1
5. \dt list tables of the public schema
6. \dt <schema-name>.* list tables of certain schema, e.g., \dt public.*
7. \dt *.* list tables of all schemas
8. Then you can run SQL statements, e.g., SELECT * FROM my_table;(Note: a statement must be terminated with semicolon ;)
9. \q quit psql

(For completeness)

You could also query the (SQL-standard) information schema:

SELECT
    table_schema || '.' || table_name
FROM
    information_schema.tables
WHERE
    table_type = 'BASE TABLE'
AND
    table_schema NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema');

1. First login as postgres user:

   sudo su - postgres

2. connect to the required db: psql -d databaseName

3. \dt would return the list of all table in the database you're connected to.

Login as a superuser so that you can check all the databases and their schemas:-

sudo su - postgres

Then we can get to postgresql shell by using following command:-

psql

You can now check all the databases list by using the following command:-

\l

If you would like to check the sizes of the databases as well use:-

\l+

Press q to go back.

Once you have found your database now you can connect to that database using the following command:-

\c database_name

Once connected you can check the database tables or schema by:-

\d

Now to return back to the shell use:-

q

Now to further see the details of a certain table use:-

\d table_name

To go back to postgresql_shell press \q.

And to return back to terminal press exit.

Those steps worked for me with PostgreSQL 13.3 and Windows 10

1. Open cmd and type psql -a -U [username] -p [port] -h [server]
2. Type \c [database] to connect to the database
3. Type \dt or \d to show all tables

The most straightforward way to list all tables at command line is, for my taste :

psql -a -U <user> -p <port> -h <server> -c "\dt"

For a given database just add the database name :

psql -a -U <user> -p <port> -h <server> -c "\dt" <database_name>

It works on both Linux and Windows.

This SQL Query works with most of the versions of PostgreSQL and fairly simple .

select table_name from information_schema.tables where table_schema='public' ;

(MySQL) shows tables list for current database

show tables;

(PostGreSQL) shows tables list for current database

select * from pg_catalog.pg_tables where schemaname='public';

as a quick oneliner

# just list all the postgres tables sorted in the terminal
db='my_db_name'
clear;psql -d $db -t -c '\dt'|cut -c 11-|perl -ne 's/^([a-z_0-9]*)( )(.*)/$1/; print'

or if you prefer much clearer json output multi-liner :

IFS='' read -r -d '' sql_code <<"EOF_CODE"
    select array_to_json(array_agg(row_to_json(t))) from (
        SELECT table_catalog,table_schema,table_name 
        FROM information_schema.tables
        ORDER BY table_schema,table_name ) t
EOF_CODE
psql -d postgres -t -q -c "$sql_code"|jq

1. In PostgreSQL command-line interface after login, type the following command to connect with the desired database.

       \c [database_name]
   

Then you will see this message You are now connected to database "[database_name]"

2. Type the following command to list all the tables.

       \dt
   

shows tables list for current database

SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_tables;

To view foreign tables in psql, run \dE