pg_description

The catalog pg_description stores optional descriptions (comments) for each database object. Descriptions can be manipulated with the COMMENT command and viewed with psql's \d commands. Descriptions of many built-in system objects are provided in the initial contents of pg_description. See also pg_shdescription, which performs a similar function for descriptions involving objects that are shared across a database cluster.

English manual coverage begins with PostgreSQL 7.4. Source history and runtime observations have their own recorded version boundaries.

Reading PG 18·Select a recorded version

7.4 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

kind: catalog
lang: en
measured attributes: true
metadata release: 18.6
runtime columns: objoid, classoid, objsubid, description
runtime verified: false
source: english-manual

Definition PG 18

Catalog columns

Column	Type	Nullability	Description
objoid	oid	Not null	The OID of the object this description pertains to
classoid	oid	Not null	The OID of the system catalog this object appears in
objsubid	int4	Not null	For a comment on a table column, this is the column number (the objoid and classoid refer to the table itself). For all other object types, this column is zero.
description	text	Not null	Arbitrary text that serves as the description of this object

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Original manual reference

Full definition and evidence JSON

Definition sources

center · PostgreSQL 18 · catalog-bilingual-repair:011c7bea1fdba86738e81fc56640e7346bd1ad2b5dc4d7527950d547225c7f2a

Text language: en · catalog-bilingual-repair:011c7bea1fdba86738e81fc56640e7346bd1ad2b5dc4d7527950d547225c7f2a