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DESCRIBE SCHEMA

Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime

Returns the metadata of an existing schema. The metadata information includes the schema's name, comment, and ___location on the filesystem. If the optional EXTENDED option is specified, schema properties are also returned.

While usage of SCHEMA and DATABASE is interchangeable, SCHEMA is preferred.

Syntax

{ DESC | DESCRIBE } SCHEMA [ EXTENDED ] schema_name

Parameters

  • schema_name: The name of an existing schema (schema) in the system. If the name does not exist, an exception is thrown.

Examples

-- Create employees SCHEMA
> CREATE SCHEMA employees COMMENT 'For software companies';

-- Describe employees SCHEMA.
-- Returns Database Name, Description and Root ___location of the filesystem
-- for the employees SCHEMA.
> DESCRIBE SCHEMA employees;
 database_description_item    database_description_value
 ------------------------- -----------------------------
             Database Name                     employees
               Description        For software companies
                  Location file:/you/Temp/employees.db

-- Create employees SCHEMA
> CREATE SCHEMA employees COMMENT 'For software companies';

-- Alter employees schema to set DBPROPERTIES
> ALTER SCHEMA employees SET DBPROPERTIES ('Create-by' = 'Kevin', 'Create-date' = '09/01/2019');

-- Describe employees SCHEMA with EXTENDED option to return additional schema properties
> DESCRIBE SCHEMA EXTENDED employees;
 database_description_item                    database_description_value
 ------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
             Database Name                                     employees
               Description                        For software companies
                  Location                 file:/you/Temp/employees.db
                Properties ((Create-by,kevin), (Create-date,09/01/2019))

-- Create deployment SCHEMA
> CREATE SCHEMA deployment COMMENT 'Deployment environment';

-- Describe deployment.
> DESCRIBE SCHEMA deployment;
 database_description_item database_description_value
 ------------------------- ------------------------------
             Database Name                     deployment
               Description         Deployment environment
                  Location file:/you/Temp/deployment.db