> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# DESCRIBE TABLE

Lists the columns and column types & properties for a given *table*.

```sql title="DESCRIBE TABLE Syntax" theme={null}
DESC[RIBE] [TABLE] [<schema name>.]<table name>
```

## Parameters

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="TABLE" id="table" defaultOpen>
    Optional clause to avoid ambiguity:

    * if given, and a *view* with the given name exists instead, the command will return an error
    * if omitted, and a *view* with the given name exists instead, the command will be interpreted as
      a `DESCRIBE VIEW` statement
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="<schema name>" id="<schema-name>" defaultOpen>
    Name of the *schema* containing the *table* to describe
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="<table name>" id="<table-name>" defaultOpen>
    Name of the *table* whose configuration will be output
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Examples

To describe the example table created in the [CREATE TABLE](/content/sql/ddl/create-table#sql-create-table) section:

```sql DESCRIBE TABLE Example theme={null}
DESC example.various_types
```

```sql DESCRIBE TABLE Output theme={null}
+-----------+--------+------------+-----------------------------------+
| Col_num   | Name   | Null?      | Type                              |
+-----------+--------+------------+-----------------------------------+
| 0         | i      | NOT NULL   | INTEGER (primary_key)             |
| 1         | bi     | NOT NULL   | BIGINT (primary_key, shard_key)   |
| 2         | b      |            | BOOLEAN                           |
| 3         | ub     |            | UNSIGNED BIGINT                   |
| 4         | r      |            | REAL                              |
| 5         | d      |            | DOUBLE                            |
| 6         | s      |            | VARCHAR (text_search)             |
| 7         | c      |            | VARCHAR (32, dict)                |
| 8         | p      |            | VARCHAR (256, text_search)        |
| 9         | ip     |            | IPV4                              |
| 10        | ui     |            | UUID (init_with_uuid)             |
| 11        | ts     |            | TIMESTAMP                         |
| 12        | td     |            | DATE                              |
| 13        | tt     |            | TIME                              |
| 14        | dt     |            | DATETIME (init_with_now)          |
| 15        | dc     |            | DECIMAL (28, 0)                   |
| 16        | dc8    |            | DECIMAL (18, 4)                   |
| 17        | dc12   |            | DECIMAL (27, 18)                  |
| 18        | n      |            | DECIMAL (18, 4)                   |
| 19        | byt    |            | BLOB                              |
| 20        | w      |            | GEOMETRY                          |
| 21        | j      |            | JSON                              |
| 22        | v      |            | VECTOR (10)                       |
| 23        | ai     |            | INTEGER[3]                        |
+-----------+--------+------------+-----------------------------------+
```