Piotr Kononow
(System) Catalog Views or Data Dictionary Views (or sometimes tables) are standard views (or tables) in most relational databases that provide access to metadata - information about schema, security, etc. Each engine has its specific set of views.
Read also: Information_schema
Typical views
- tables
- columns
- foreign keys
See more in: Metadata in relational databases
Database catalogs
| Database | Catalog | Schema | Prefix |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server | System Catalog Views | sys | |
| Azure SQL Database | System Catalog Views | sys | |
| Oracle | Data Dictionary Views / Catalog Views | SYS | ALL_, USER_, DBA_ |
| MySQL | Information schema | information_schema | |
| PostgreSQL | System Catalogs | pg_ | |
| IBM Db2 | Catalog views | SYSCAT | |
| MariaDB | Information schema | information_schema | |
| Amazon Redshift | System Catalog Tables | pg_ | |
| Teradata | Data Dictionary Views | DBC | |
| Snowflake | Information schema | information_schema | |
| SAP/Sybase ASE | System Tables | sys | |
| SAP HANA | System Views | sys | |
| Vertica | System Tables | v_catalog | |
| IBM Informix | System Catalog Table | informix | sys |
| SQLite | System Table | sqlite_master | |
| Firebird | System Tables | RDB$ | |
| Interbase | System Tables | RDB$ |