How do I get column datatype in Oracle with PL-SQL with low privileges?

Solution 1:

ALL_TAB_COLUMNS should be queryable from PL/SQL. DESC is a SQL*Plus command.

SQL> desc all_tab_columns;
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 OWNER                                     NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 TABLE_NAME                                NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 COLUMN_NAME                               NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 DATA_TYPE                                          VARCHAR2(106)
 DATA_TYPE_MOD                                      VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_TYPE_OWNER                                    VARCHAR2(30)
 DATA_LENGTH                               NOT NULL NUMBER
 DATA_PRECISION                                     NUMBER
 DATA_SCALE                                         NUMBER
 NULLABLE                                           VARCHAR2(1)
 COLUMN_ID                                          NUMBER
 DEFAULT_LENGTH                                     NUMBER
 DATA_DEFAULT                                       LONG
 NUM_DISTINCT                                       NUMBER
 LOW_VALUE                                          RAW(32)
 HIGH_VALUE                                         RAW(32)
 DENSITY                                            NUMBER
 NUM_NULLS                                          NUMBER
 NUM_BUCKETS                                        NUMBER
 LAST_ANALYZED                                      DATE
 SAMPLE_SIZE                                        NUMBER
 CHARACTER_SET_NAME                                 VARCHAR2(44)
 CHAR_COL_DECL_LENGTH                               NUMBER
 GLOBAL_STATS                                       VARCHAR2(3)
 USER_STATS                                         VARCHAR2(3)
 AVG_COL_LEN                                        NUMBER
 CHAR_LENGTH                                        NUMBER
 CHAR_USED                                          VARCHAR2(1)
 V80_FMT_IMAGE                                      VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_UPGRADED                                      VARCHAR2(3)
 HISTOGRAM                                          VARCHAR2(15)

Solution 2:

You can use the desc command.

desc MY_TABLE

This will give you the column names, whether null is valid, and the datatype (and length if applicable)

Solution 3:

The best solution that I've found for such case is

select column_name, data_type||
case
when data_precision is not null and nvl(data_scale,0)>0 then '('||data_precision||','||data_scale||')'
when data_precision is not null and nvl(data_scale,0)=0 then '('||data_precision||')'
when data_precision is null and data_scale is not null then '(*,'||data_scale||')'
when char_length>0 then '('||char_length|| case char_used 
                                                         when 'B' then ' Byte'
                                                         when 'C' then ' Char'
                                                         else null 
                                           end||')'
end||decode(nullable, 'N', ' NOT NULL')
from user_tab_columns
where table_name = 'TABLE_NAME'
and column_name = 'COLUMN_NAME';

@Aaron Stainback, thank you for correction!

Solution 4:

Note: if you are trying to get this information for tables that are in a different SCHEMA use the all_tab_columns view, we have this problem as our Applications use a different SCHEMA for security purposes.

use the following:

EG:

SELECT
    data_length 
FROM
    all_tab_columns 
WHERE
    upper(table_name) = 'MY_TABLE_NAME' AND upper(column_name) = 'MY_COL_NAME'

Solution 5:

select t.data_type 
  from user_tab_columns t 
 where t.TABLE_NAME = 'xxx' 
   and t.COLUMN_NAME='aaa'