Applies to: Databricks SQL Databricks Runtime 10.4 LTS and above Unity Catalog only
Returns the metadata of an existing catalog. The metadata information includes catalog name, comment, and owner.
If the optional EXTENDED option is specified, it returns the basic metadata information along with the other catalog properties.
catalog_name: The name of an existing catalog in the metastore.
If the name does not exist, an exception is thrown.
Examples
> DESCRIBE CATALOG main;
info_name info_value
------------ ------------------------------------
Catalog Name main
Comment Main catalog (auto-created)
Owner metastore-admin-users
Catalog Type Regular
> DESCRIBE CATALOG EXTENDED main;
info_name info_value
------------ ------------------------------------
Catalog Name main
Comment This is a reserved catalog in Spark.
Comment Main catalog (auto-created)
Owner metastore-admin-users
Catalog Type Regular
Created By
Created At
Updated By
Updated At
-- A catalog from a Delta Sharing share
> DESCRIBE CATALOG vaccinedata;
info_name info_value
------------ ------------------------------------
Catalog Name vaccinedata
Comment
Owner alwaysworks@databricks.com
Catalog Type Delta Sharing
Relational databases can store vast quantities of data, but they also need to hold information about the structure of that data. For an operational database management system (DBMS) information about the structure of tables, and all other objects, security, and concurrency, amongst many other settings and metrics, is required. This information is know as metadata and is stored in system catalogs in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. In addition to directly accessing system catalogs, you can access system views
Learn about the information schema in Databricks SQL and Databricks Runtime. The purpose of the information schema is to provide a SQL-based, self-describing API to the metadata.