Thread: System tables

I'm working on a project which needs to introspect the structure of a
database. I need to fish out table names, attribute names and
type, and foreign keys.

I had a poke about the system tables, but the meaning of the data isn't
always 100% clear. In particular, I could find no easy way to determine the
foreign key constraints (I know that Postgres emulates foreign keys with
rules and triggers).

Does anyone have some definitive information about the contents of the
system tables. Something like a description of the attribute meanings and
an ER diagram explaining table links would be very helpful, and would lead
to faster more accurate hitchhiking.

Cheers

Chris

Descriptions of the system tables can be found here:

http://www.postgresql.org/devel-corner/docs/postgres/catalogs.htm

Also, if you want to muddle through some PHP code, you can get phpPgAdmin
and checkout how the database and table structures are retrieved.  It's all
done with standard queries.  phpPgAdmin can be downloaded from:

http://www.greatbridge.org/project/phppgadmin

-Dan



> I'm working on a project which needs to introspect the structure of a
> database. I need to fish out table names, attribute names and
> type, and foreign keys.
>
> I had a poke about the system tables, but the meaning of the data isn't
> always 100% clear. In particular, I could find no easy way to determine
the
> foreign key constraints (I know that Postgres emulates foreign keys with
> rules and triggers).
>
> Does anyone have some definitive information about the contents of the
> system tables. Something like a description of the attribute meanings and
> an ER diagram explaining table links would be very helpful, and would lead
> to faster more accurate hitchhiking.
>
> Cheers
>
> Chris