PostgreSQL: Show tables in PostgreSQL

What’s the equivalent to show tables (from MySQL) 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.

Login as superuser:

sudo -u postgres psql

You can list all databases and users by \l command, (list other commands by \?).

Now if you want to see other databases you can change user/database by \c command like \c template1, \c postgres postgres and use \d, \dt or \dS to see tables/views/etc.

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.

Running psql with the -E flag will echo the query used internally to implement \dt and similar:

sudo -u postgres psql -E

postgres=# \dt       
********* QUERY **********
SELECT n.nspname as "Schema",
c.relname as "Name", 
CASE c.relkind WHEN 'r' THEN 'table' WHEN 'v' THEN 'view' WHEN 'i' THEN 'index' WHEN 'S' THEN 'sequence' WHEN 's' THEN 'special' END as "Type",
pg_catalog.pg_get_userbyid(c.relowner) as "Owner"
FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c
    LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE c.relkind IN ('r','')
    AND n.nspname <> 'pg_catalog'
    AND n.nspname <> 'information_schema'
    AND n.nspname !~ '^pg_toast'
AND pg_catalog.pg_table_is_visible(c.oid)
ORDER BY 1,2;        
**************************

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.

If you only want to see the list of tables you’ve created, you may only say:

\dt

But we also have PATTERN which will help you customize which tables to show. To show all including pg_catalog Schema, you can add *.

\dt *

If you do: \?

\dt[S+] [PATTERN] list tables

use only see a tables

=> \dt

if want to see schema tables

=>\dt+

if you want to see specific schema tables

=>\dt schema_name.* 

First Connect with the Database using following command

\c database_name

And you will see this message – You are now connected to database database_name. And them run the following command

SELECT * FROM table_name;

In database_name and table_name just update with your database and table name

If you are using pgAdmin4 in PostgreSQL, you can use this to show the tables in your database:

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

Note that \dt alone will list tables in the public schema of the database you’re using. I like to keep my tables in separate schemas, so the accepted answer didn’t work for me.

To list all tables within a specific schema, I needed to:

1) Connect to the desired database:

psql mydb

2) Specify the schema name I want to see tables for after the \dt command, like this:

\dt myschema.*

This shows me the results I’m interested in:

               List of relations
 Schema   |       Name      | Type  |  Owner   
----------+-----------------+-------+----------
 myschema | users           | table | postgres
 myschema | activity        | table | postgres
 myschema | roles           | table | postgres

select 
  * 
from 
  pg_catalog.pg_tables 
where 
  schemaname != 'information_schema' 
  and schemaname != 'pg_catalog';

\dt (no * required) — will list all tables for an existing database you are already connected to. Also useful to note:

\d [table_name] — will show all columns for a given table including type information, references and key constraints.

You can list the tables in the current database with \dt.

Fwiw, \d tablename will show details about the given table, something like show columns from tablename in MySQL, but with a little more information.

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.

Using psql : \dt

Or:

SELECT c.relname AS Tables_in FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c
        LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE pg_catalog.pg_table_is_visible(c.oid)
        AND c.relkind = 'r'
        AND relname NOT LIKE 'pg_%'
ORDER BY 1

First of all you have to connect with your database like

my database is ubuntu

use this command to connect

 \c ubuntu

This message will show

“You are now connected to database “ubuntu” as user “postgres”.”

Now

Run this command to show all tables in it

\d+

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

\dt will list tables, and “\pset pager off” shows them in the same window, without switching to a separate one. Love that feature to death in dbshell.

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' ;

To view foreign tables in psql, run \dE

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
   
   

First you can connect with your postgres database using the postgre.app on mac or using postico. Run the following command:

psql -h localhost -p port_number -d database_name -U user_name -W

then you enter your password, this should give access to your database