DESCRIBE CATALOG

Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime 10.3 and above check marked yes 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.

Syntax 

{ DESC | DESCRIBE } CATALOG [ EXTENDED ] catalog_name

Parameters

  • 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