Postgresql – Display user-defined types and their details

catalogspostgresqluser-defined-type

I've created a few new UDTs in PostgreSQL. However, now I have two problems:

  1. how to see which UDTs have been defined?
  2. how to see the columns defined within these UDTs?

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on that in the PostgreSQL documentation.

Best Answer

Does this get you started?

SELECT n.nspname AS schema,
        pg_catalog.format_type ( t.oid, NULL ) AS name,
        t.typname AS internal_name,
        CASE
            WHEN t.typrelid != 0
            THEN CAST ( 'tuple' AS pg_catalog.text )
            WHEN t.typlen < 0
            THEN CAST ( 'var' AS pg_catalog.text )
            ELSE CAST ( t.typlen AS pg_catalog.text )
        END AS size,
        pg_catalog.array_to_string (
            ARRAY( SELECT e.enumlabel
                    FROM pg_catalog.pg_enum e
                    WHERE e.enumtypid = t.oid
                    ORDER BY e.oid ), E'\n'
            ) AS elements,
        pg_catalog.obj_description ( t.oid, 'pg_type' ) AS description
    FROM pg_catalog.pg_type t
    LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n
        ON n.oid = t.typnamespace
    WHERE ( t.typrelid = 0
            OR ( SELECT c.relkind = 'c'
                    FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c
                    WHERE c.oid = t.typrelid
                )
        )
        AND NOT EXISTS
            ( SELECT 1
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_type el
                WHERE el.oid = t.typelem
                    AND el.typarray = t.oid
            )
        AND n.nspname <> 'pg_catalog'
        AND n.nspname <> 'information_schema'
        AND pg_catalog.pg_type_is_visible ( t.oid )
    ORDER BY 1, 2;

In psql you can \set ECHO_HIDDEN on to make psql show you the queries used to generate the output of the \d... commands. I've found these queries to be very useful as a starting point when digging metadata out of databases.

Update: 2019-12-16

For composite types, the columns metadata can be determined using something like the following:

WITH types AS (
    SELECT n.nspname,
            pg_catalog.format_type ( t.oid, NULL ) AS obj_name,
            CASE
                WHEN t.typrelid != 0 THEN CAST ( 'tuple' AS pg_catalog.text )
                WHEN t.typlen < 0 THEN CAST ( 'var' AS pg_catalog.text )
                ELSE CAST ( t.typlen AS pg_catalog.text )
                END AS obj_type,
            coalesce ( pg_catalog.obj_description ( t.oid, 'pg_type' ), '' ) AS description
        FROM pg_catalog.pg_type t
        JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n
            ON n.oid = t.typnamespace
        WHERE ( t.typrelid = 0
                OR ( SELECT c.relkind = 'c'
                        FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c
                        WHERE c.oid = t.typrelid ) )
            AND NOT EXISTS (
                    SELECT 1
                        FROM pg_catalog.pg_type el
                        WHERE el.oid = t.typelem
                        AND el.typarray = t.oid )
            AND n.nspname <> 'pg_catalog'
            AND n.nspname <> 'information_schema'
            AND n.nspname !~ '^pg_toast'
),
cols AS (
    SELECT n.nspname::text AS schema_name,
            pg_catalog.format_type ( t.oid, NULL ) AS obj_name,
            a.attname::text AS column_name,
            pg_catalog.format_type ( a.atttypid, a.atttypmod ) AS data_type,
            a.attnotnull AS is_required,
            a.attnum AS ordinal_position,
            pg_catalog.col_description ( a.attrelid, a.attnum ) AS description
        FROM pg_catalog.pg_attribute a
        JOIN pg_catalog.pg_type t
            ON a.attrelid = t.typrelid
        JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n
            ON ( n.oid = t.typnamespace )
        JOIN types
            ON ( types.nspname = n.nspname
                AND types.obj_name = pg_catalog.format_type ( t.oid, NULL ) )
        WHERE a.attnum > 0
            AND NOT a.attisdropped
)
SELECT cols.schema_name,
        cols.obj_name,
        cols.column_name,
        cols.data_type,
        cols.ordinal_position,
        cols.is_required,
        coalesce ( cols.description, '' ) AS description
    FROM cols
    ORDER BY cols.schema_name,
            cols.obj_name,
            cols.ordinal_position ;