If what you want is lots of information about the columns in a particular table that you can view, try this:

my $sql_statement =
      "select distinct column_name, column_id
         from all_tab_columns
         where table_name = upper('$table_name')
         order by column_id";
[download]

You can adjust what information you want by selecting additional columns from the ALL_TAB_COLUMNS view. Lots of goodies there.

I use this for dynamically creating persistent instances of objects and building the class attributes dynamically. Once I tighten up the code a bit more, I'll be posting my DB_Object class module here.

The reason for the select distinct is that in Oracle, if there is a SYNONYM, it will be listed along with the table information and it will be identical. COLUMN_NAME and COLUMN_ID are the minimums to get away with for the distinct.

Mike

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen... and stupidity."
Harlan Ellison