DESC on SQL Window

[STESTWELL1]

I am trying to execute DESC abc.table1 but I am getting ORA-00900: invalid SQL Statement.
I have login at test@schema1
grant to public is given by abc on table1 which is under schema1.

Can you help me what I am doing wrong.

 

[IvanZ]

You should run this command in
Command window

 

[Marco Kalter]

Or right-click on abc.table1 and select "Describe" from the popup menu.

 

[Hilarion]

What IvanZ and Marco wrote is true. What should probably be also said is that it works like that because "DESC" is not an Oracle SQL statement. It's an SQL*Plus application command. The Command Window of PL/SQL Developer is a mechanism that simulates the SQL*Plus application functionalities in a way and to some degree and that's why it can handle "DESC" command.

What SQL*Plus (and PL/SQL Developer's Command Window) does "under the hood", when you order it to describe a table is querying some dictionaries of Oracle Database and prints what it found there. The similar result you can get by querying those dictionaries yourself (and this will work in any application that allows querying Oracle Database). What PL/SQL Developer also offers in that regard is:

• the "DESC" command in Command Window,
• the "Describe" context command that displays simple describe window (which shows basic table columns definitions in case of table),
• the "Properties" context command that displays simple properties window (which shows basic table attributes in case of table),
• the "View" context command that displays all the details of object definition (which includes all the information from above cases and usually much more).