Unable to describe table in oracle

oracle

I'm trying to get the description of a table in oracle because I need to know what foreign keys does it have and which tables they refer to.
I'm using desc
but all I get is "ORA-00900: invalid SQL statement"
Any idea why?
Thanks.

Best Answer

I suspect that you did not execute this command with sqlplus. Not every sql program can handle the desc command.

You can either use sqlplus or get the table definition with the following SQL command:

SELECT dbms_metadata.get_ddl (object_type, object_name, owner)
FROM   all_objects
WHERE  owner = '<owner>'
  AND  object_name LIKE '<whatever_table>%';

This will give you the complete table definition with all column definitions.

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Difference between oracle database desktop and server class

May the reason be why I installed Oracle as desktop class instead of server class?

No, 'Desktop Class' just means you only get basic choices from the installer¹, according to the docs:

Desktop Class—This installation class is most appropriate for laptop or desktop computers. It includes a starter database and requires minimal configuration.

Server Class—This installation class is for servers, such as you would find in a data center, or used to support enterprise-level applications. Choose this installation class if you need access to advanced configuration options.

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You'll need to go through the kind of troubleshooting steps suggested in the comments to find out what is causing the ORA-12545 error:

An ORA-12545 error occurs when the client is not able to contact the listener on the node specified. For example: when the listener has not been started on the node, if the node address has been specified incorrectly, or a firewall blocks access.

_{¹ So 'Desktop Class' and 'Server Class' are poor names for the installation types. 'Basic' and 'Custom' might be better?}

Best Answer

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