DESCRIBE TABLE

Provide high-level information regarding the overall column properties of an existing dataset. Dremio displays the column headers indicating the type of information being described and rows for each table column with their associated attributes described, such as data types, properties, and policies.

Syntax

DESCRIBE TABLE <table_name>

Parameters

<table_name> String

The name of the table that you want to describe.

Example

Describing a table

DESCRIBE TABLE taxistats

COLUMN_NAME	DATA_TYPE	IS_NULLABLE	NUMERIC_PRECISION	NUMERIC_SCALE	EXTENDED_PROPERTIES	MASKING_POLICY	SORT_ORDER_PRIORITY
pickup_datetime	TIMESTAMP	YES	null	null	[]	[]	1
passenger_count	BIGINT	YES	64	0	[]	count_hide	null
trip_distance_mi	DOUBLE	YES	53	null	[]	[]	null
fare_amount	DOUBLE	YES	53	null	[]	[]	null
tip_amount	DOUBLE	YES	53	null	[]	[]	null
total_amount	DOUBLE	YES	53	null	[]	[]	null

The cells containing a '[]' indicate "empty" values.

Columns

Column	Data Type	Description
COLUMN_NAME	string	The name of the column in the table.
DATA_TYPE	string	The data type allowed for values in the column.
IS_NULLABLE	boolean	Indicates whether values in the column can be null.
NUMERIC_PRECISION	integer	The maximum number of digits allowed in a value.
NUMERIC_SCALE	integer	The maximum number of digits allowed to the right of the decimal point.
EXTENDED_PROPERTIES	array	Additional properties, if any, that have been set on the column.
MASKING_POLICY	string	The masking policy, if any, that is set on the column.
SORT_ORDER_PRIORITY	integer	Indicates the sort order of the columns that are used for sorting, if the CREATE TABLE command that created the table used the LOCALSORT BY clause or if the table was altered by an ALTER TABLE command that used the LOCALSORT BY clause. For example, if a table was altered, and the clause LOCALSORT BY (colA, colB) was used, the table is sorted by colA and then by colB, the value for colA is 1, while the value for colB is 2. The lower the number, the higher the priority.