How To Find Data Source In Sql Server

Browsing the SCHEMA

Last modified: August 09, 2021

The word SCHEMA is used to draw a drove of tables and their relationships in your database. A database case may have several different schemas. When you're working with a set of data, it's useful to be able to scan that schema to get a sense for what information is bachelor to you.

Yous can browse a schema visually using popular database interfaces like PGAdmin, Postico and Chartio, or in a text-based way by using SQL itself.

Typically using a visual tool is much easier, but it'due south totally up to you. Here we're going to rapidly encompass both, but if you already have a handle on ane of the visual editors and are comfy with finding out what schema is available feel gratis to skip this part and move on to the Basic SQL Practice Grounds.

Visual Schema Browsing

If yous're using a practiced visual interface to PostgreSQL, browsing the schema tin can be really piece of cake. Below nosotros also show y'all how to scan the schema in SQL, but unless you merely tin't use i of these tools I highly propose you browse the schema visually. Information technology's just easier.

Schemas in PGAdmin

Once connected to a database, you can expand the trees in the left sidebar in PGAdmin to notice the database, schema, tables and columns available:

PGAdmin Schema Browsing

The "Properties" tab in the right summit of the interface will brandish all of the extra properties that the information_schema holds on the table or column including default values, information type, and more.

PGAdmin Column View

Schemas in Chartio

Chartio'southward schema viewer just lists the tables in the Schema tab of whatever data source connectedness.

Chartio Schema Editor

Each tabular array can be expanded to show the columns underneath. In Chartio you tin really modify the name/alias, ascertain relationships and create custom tables and columns. This isn't mapped back to database, simply used only for the Chartio Visual Data Explorer.

Clicking on "Visualize" from the information source Schema folio will also create a nice visualization of all of the tables, with their columns listed. In this view, relationships that are defined are also drawn as connections from one tabular array to another.

Schema Browsing using SQL

Using psql or any other SQL interface you lot can browse your schema information. PostgreSQL is really clever in that all of the schema data is but stored in a few tables that you lot tin can query like any other table. The information is all in a schema called information_schema. The tabular array holding all the information on what tables are available is called tables. Let's take a look at what's available at that place:

The above volition get all the tables from all schemas. If we want to look at only the tables in our chinook dataset we can query for but things in the public schema. The public schema FYI is the default. We do this by just adding a condition on the table_schema column.

You lot'll notice the artists, albums and tracks tables we've been playing with so far in our tutorial, but look at all those others we've been holding out on! At that place'south as well actors, employees, genres, etc. We'll dig into looking at the columns in those tables next, but first accept a moment to modify the query higher up to look at what tables are bachelor in PostgreSQL's information_schema schema.

You lot'll encounter that ane of the tables available in the information_schema is columns, and as you might approximate, like tables held the info on what tables are bachelor columns holds the info on the columns.

Let's take a expect at the columns in the tracks table with the condition table_name = 'tracks'.

As shown PostgreSQL stores all kinds of information nigh each column including the data_type, character_maximum_length, diverse precision options and an optional default value.

Sampling a Few Rows

Another bang-up (and probably easier) way of checking out what columns and data is bachelor in a tabular array is to only grab a few rows of it. Don't grab all the information, it may be a actually large table and we don't need it all! Allow's have a look at what'due south bachelor in the playlists tabular array with a limited SELECT *.

And of form if y'all want to meet how much data at that place is in at that place yous tin run other diagnostic queries like a COUNT(*).

psql Schema Shortcuts

If you lot're using psql equally your connection to your database at that place are a number of helpful schema browsing shortcuts. The following are to me the most useful for schema browsing and, if interested, you lot can find the full list of psql commands here.

Shortcut	Description
\d	list of all tables
\d+	list of all relations
\d [table name]	list of the columns, indexes and relations for the [table name]
\dn	list of all schemas (namespaces)
\50	list of all databases
\z	listing tables with access privileges