Is there a way to easily get the column types of a query result? I read the psql documentation, but I don't think it supports that. Ideally, I'd be able to get something like:
columna : text | columnb : integer
----------------+-------------------
oh hai | 42
Is there a way I can get this information without coding something up?
It is definitely possible with \gdesc command(psql 11):
Shows the description (that is, the column names and data types) of the result of the current query buffer. The query is not actually executed; however, if it contains some type of syntax error, that error will be reported in the normal way.
If the current query buffer is empty, the most recently sent query is described instead.
For example:
$ SELECT * FROM pg_database \gdesc
COLUMN | TYPE
---------------+-----------
datname | name
datdba | oid
encoding | INTEGER
datcollate | name
datctype | name
datistemplate | BOOLEAN
datallowconn | BOOLEAN
datconnlimit | INTEGER
datlastsysoid | oid
datfrozenxid | xid
datminmxid | xid
dattablespace | oid
datacl | aclitem[]