Updated on 2025-04-21 GMT+08:00

DESCRIBE

Function

This command shows detailed information or statistics about a table.

Syntax

Show statistics about a table:

DESCRIBE [EXTENDED|FORMATTED] [database_name.]table_name|DELTA.`obs://bucket_name/tbl_path`;

Show detailed information about a table:

DESCRIBE DETAIL [database_name.]table_name|DELTA.`obs://bucket_name/tbl_path`;

Required Permissions

  • SQL permissions
Table 1 Permissions required for executing DESCRIBE

Permission Description

DESCRIBE_TABLE permission on a table

  • Fine-grained permission: dli:table:describeTable
  • Metadata services provided by LakeFormation. Refer to the LakeFormation documentation for details on permission configuration.

Examples

DESCRIBE FORMATTED delta_table0;

DESCRIBE FORMATTED delta.`obs://bucket_name0/db0/delta_table0`;

DESCRIBE DETAIL delta_table0;

System Response

Returns details or statistics about a table.

Table 2 Result parameters

Parameter

Description

format

Format of the table, which is delta in this example

id

Unique ID of the table

name

Table name defined in MetaServer

description

Description about the table

location

Storage path of the table

createdAt

Timestamp when the table was created

lastModified

Timestamp when the table was last modified

partitionColumns

Partition column

numFiles

Number of files in the latest version of the table

sizeInBytes

Size of the latest snapshot of the table, in bytes

properties

All the attributes set for this table

minReaderVersion

Earliest reader version that can read the table

minWriterVersion

Earliest writer version that can write the table