Oracle Metadata - Views For Metadata

Views For Metadata

The total number of these views depends on the Oracle version, but is in a 1000 range.

The main built-in views accessing Oracle RDBMS data dictionary tables are few, and are as follows:

• ALL_TABLES – list of all tables in the current database that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_VIEWS – list of all views in the current database that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_TAB_COLUMNS – list of all columns in the database that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_ARGUMENTS – lists the arguments of functions and procedures that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_ERRORS – lists descriptions of errors on all stored objects (views, procedures, functions, packages, and package bodies) that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_OBJECT_SIZE – included for backward compatibility with Oracle version 5
• ALL_PROCEDURES – (from Oracle 9 onwards) lists all functions and procedures (along with associated properties) that are accessible to the current user
• ALL_SOURCE – describes the text (i.e. PL/SQL) source of the stored objects accessible to the current user

In addition there are equivalent views prefixed "USER_" which show only the objects owned by the current user (i.e. a more restricted view of metadata) and prefixed "DBA_" which show all objects in the database (i.e. an unrestricted global view of metadata for the database instance). Naturally the access to "DBA_" metadata views requires specific privileges.