Re: getting list of columns from a query

[c k <shreeseva.learning@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am using PostgreSQL 8.4 on Fedora Linux 13 and using MS Access as the front end for our application. It is not the problem associated with MS Access. I got the some entries while searching for the said topic that Oracle provides such facility.
DESCRIBE SELECT LIST which gives the details about the column names and data types. I need such thing in postgresql, because users of my application can execute custom query and then select the aggregate function to be applied to the selected columns. This can be done using Pivot Table/Chart in MS Access, but it is not sufficient, rather it will be better if postgres has support for this.

Thanks and regards to all,

CPK

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 4:56 AM, Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello

2010/8/22 c k <shreeseva.learning@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Hi all,
> As I am using MS Access for a long time, many tools like ms access provides
> a way to get the list of columns from a query. (using filed list in combo
> boxes in ms access). But is it possible to get such list of columns from a
> query where it is not known to the user, that which columns are defined in
> the base 'SELECT' statement? How? I dynamically created SQL statements many
> times this situation occurs where the columns are not fixed and we have to
> get the list of columns from such a query.
> Thanks in advance.
>

Yes, it is possible, you can get a description of prepared statement's
result. See: PQprepare, PQdescribePrepared, PQdescribePortal. These
functions are in client postgresql library -
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/interactive/libpq-exec.html#LIBPQ-EXEC-MAIN

Regards

Pavel Stehule

> CPK
>