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Article #25380: Listing column names in an InterBase table

Problem:
What is the SQL command to get the column names for a specific table in an InterBase database?


Solution:
/*******************************************************************************/
Note: The information in this article applies to
            InterBase v5.x
/********************************************************************************/

Here is the syntax of the SQL command to get the names of
columns in the table:


select  rdb$relation_name,  rdb$field_name from rdb$relation_fields
where rdb$relation_name=


For example to find the columns in the "contacts" table, you could
issue the sql statement below: 

    select  rdb$relation_name,  rdb$field_name from rdb$relation_fields
where rdb$relation_name='CONTACTS'

This would result in a display like the following:

RDB$RELATION_NAME               RDB$FIELD_NAME                  
===================          =============================== 

CONTACTS	                           LASTCONTACTDATE                 
CONTACTS               	     CUSTOMER_NO                     
CONTACTS                        	     LAST_NAME                       
CONTACTS                                       FIRST_NAME                      
CONTACTS                                       COMPANY                         
CONTACTS                                       PHONE               




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WARNING:
Do not forget to put the table name in single quotation marks.  If you
forget,   you will get an error like the following:
            
Statement failed, SQLCODE = -206 

Dynamic SQL Error
-SQL error code = -206
-Column unknown


Interbase requires the single quotation marks around literal values.
Putting the quotation marks around the literal helps InterBase
to know that you are talking about a literal value and not
a column.

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Last Modified: 26-SEP-00