CODEWITHSUNDEEP
postgresql
dodoelhos
dodoelhos

Reputation: 217

Adding description of columns

We currently have tables full of sensor readings. An example of the column names would be:

However, as you can see it is not very descriptive, but we need these to be this way as it matches the sensor ids themselves. I was wondering if there is a neat solution to adding the description of the columns such as:

I thought of having a table in the database with the following columns:

However, it just doesn't feel like a very neat solution.

Does postgres have a functionality of adding a description of the column in one of the pg tables, or in the back end of the table itself somehow?

Edit:

The question has been answered below. If anyone is wondering how to retrieve the comments this page is very useful

https://www.developerfiles.com/adding-and-retrieving-comments-on-postgresql-tables/

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2037

Answers (1)

user330315
user330315

Reputation:

You can attach a comment to a column:

comment on column the_table.ao_1 
    is 'This refers to a temperature sensor that is at the beginning of the outlet';

comment on column the_table.ao_2 
    is 'This refers to a temperature sensor that is at the end of the outlet';

A good SQL client will then display those columns together with the table definitions.

You can do the same for the table itself:

comment on table the_table is 'This tables stores sensor readings';

This doesn't stop at tables and columns. You can attach a comment to nearly everything in the database.

Upvotes: 7

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