system.columns - Clickhouse

Contains information about columns in all tables.

You can use this table to get information similar to the DESCRIBE TABLE query, but for multiple tables at once.

Columns from temporary tables are visible in the system.columns only in those session where they have been created. They are shown with the empty database field.

The system.columns table contains the following columns (the column type is shown in brackets):

Example

sql

SELECT * FROM system.columns LIMIT 2 FORMAT Vertical;

text

Row 1:
──────
database:                INFORMATION_SCHEMA
table:                   COLUMNS
name:                    table_catalog
type:                    String
position:                1
default_kind:
default_expression:
data_compressed_bytes:   0
data_uncompressed_bytes: 0
marks_bytes:             0
comment:
is_in_partition_key:     0
is_in_sorting_key:       0
is_in_primary_key:       0
is_in_sampling_key:      0
compression_codec:
character_octet_length:  ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_precision:       ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_precision_radix: ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_scale:           ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
datetime_precision:      ᴺᵁᴸᴸ

Row 2:
──────
database:                INFORMATION_SCHEMA
table:                   COLUMNS
name:                    table_schema
type:                    String
position:                2
default_kind:
default_expression:
data_compressed_bytes:   0
data_uncompressed_bytes: 0
marks_bytes:             0
comment:
is_in_partition_key:     0
is_in_sorting_key:       0
is_in_primary_key:       0
is_in_sampling_key:      0
compression_codec:
character_octet_length:  ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_precision:       ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_precision_radix: ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
numeric_scale:           ᴺᵁᴸᴸ
datetime_precision:      ᴺᵁᴸᴸ