In addition to system catalogs, the system also provides built-in views. Some system views provide convenient access to common queries on system catalogs. Other views provide access to internal server states.
The information schema provides a set of alternative views that overlap with system views in terms of functionality. Because the information schema is generally used in SQL and the views described here are specific to this system, we recommend that you use the information schema if it can provide the information you need.
The following table lists the system views. Detailed documentation of each view is provided later. Except otherwise specified, all views described here are read-only.
View name | Purpose |
| Available extensions. |
| Available versions of extensions. |
| Compile-time configuration parameters. |
| Open cursors. |
| Summary of configuration file contents. |
| Groups of database users |
| Summary of client authentication configuration file contents |
| Indexes. |
| Locks currently held or awaited. |
| Materialized views |
| Policies. |
| Prepared statements. |
| Prepared transactions. |
| Publications and information of their associated tables. |
| Information about replication origins, including replication progress. |
| Replication slot information. |
| Database roles. |
| Rules. |
| Security labels. |
| Sequences. |
| Parameter settings |
| Database users. |
| Shared memory allocations. |
| Planner statistics. |
| Extended planner statistics. |
| Tables. |
| Time zone abbreviations. |
| Time zone names. |
| Database users. |
| User mappings. |
| Views. |