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FUNCTIONS / SYSTEM INFORMATION FUNCTIONS AND OPERATORS

pg_describe_object

Read PG 18 manual ↗

Returns a textual description of a database object identified by catalog OID, object OID, and sub-object ID (such as a column number within a table; the sub-object ID is zero when referring to a whole object).

Signatures & examples

pg_describe_object ( classid oid, objid oid, objsubid integer ) → text
Returns a textual description of a database object identified by catalog OID, object OID, and sub-object ID (such as a column number within a table; the sub-object ID is zero when referring to a whole object). This description is intended to be human-readable, and might be translated, depending on server configuration. This is especially useful to determine the identity of an object referenced in the pg_depend catalog. This function returns NULL values for undefined objects.
Version history 4
  1. PG 13 → 14changed
  2. PG 12 → 13changed
  3. PG 9.4 → 9.5changed
  4. PG 9.0 → 9.1added

Definition snapshot: 2026-09-14T13:14:25.684213+00:00@99e6866c · English manual source