How can I get column names from a table in Oracle?

Question

I need to query the database to get the column names, not to be confused with data in the table. For example, if I have a table named EVENT_LOG that contains eventID, eventType, eventDesc, and eventTime, then I would want to retrieve those field names from the query and nothing else.

I found how to do this in:

• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL

But I need to know: how can this be done in Oracle?

Answer 1

SELECT COLUMN_NAME 'all_columns' 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE TABLE_NAME='user';

Answer 2

For SQL Server 2008, we can use information_schema.columns for getting column information

SELECT *
FROM   information_schema.columns
WHERE  table_name = 'Table_Name'
ORDER  BY ordinal_position  

Answer 3

SELECT COLUMN_NAME 
FROM YourDatabase.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'YourTableName'

Answer 4

describe YOUR_TABLE;

In your case :

describe EVENT_LOG;

Answer 5

You could also try this, but it might be more information than you need:

sp_columns TABLE_NAME

Answer 6

Just select first row from the table , for oracle : select * from <table name> where rownum = 1;