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I don't want to know all data types, just all data types used in my database. Can this information be queried?

PostgreSQL 8.4 and 9.x versions

I currently need to know all data types for over 200 tables in public ( and other schemas )

1 Answer 1

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select data_type, count(*) 
from information_schema.columns 
where table_schema = 'public' 
group by data_type ;

For other schemas just add: or table_schema = 'your_schema_name'.
If this will not satisfy you, you should look in pg_... or information_schema tables.

If you are looking for table information:

select data_type, count(*)
from information_schema.columns
where table_schema = 'public' and table_name = 'your_table_name'
group by data_type ;
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  • 1
    very good answer.
    – francs
    Dec 6, 2012 at 2:55
  • What would be the equivalent for a specific table? Have tried replacing lines2/3 but I'm getting errors e.g.: could not Retrieve the result : ERROR: column "data_type" does not exist
    – geotheory
    Apr 2, 2014 at 10:05
  • @geotheory look on extended answer.
    – sufleR
    Apr 3, 2014 at 12:36
  • This is handy thanks. Ultimately I wonder about a query equivalent to the psql prompt \d table_name \g method, which lists fields and their datatypes, but since this method exists there's no urgency :)
    – geotheory
    Apr 3, 2014 at 22:10
  • what type does count(*) return: int or bigint?
    – Incerteza
    Apr 10, 2014 at 14:55

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