---
title: "SHOW SCHEMAS and SHOW TABLES"
slug: "dev-database-reference-sql-show"
updated: 2026-10-30T18:19:11Z
published: 2026-10-30T18:19:11Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/dev-database-reference-sql-show"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# SHOW SCHEMAS and SHOW TABLES

*Applies to VAST Cluster 5.5.*

Lists the schemas in a database (bucket), or the tables in a schema. `SHOW <table>` lists a table's columns, like [DESCRIBE](/develop/docs/dev-database-reference-sql-describe).

## Syntax

```
SHOW SCHEMAS "<bucket>"
SHOW TABLES "<bucket>/<schema>"
SHOW "<bucket>/<schema>".<table>
```

## Parameters and rules

| Statement | Returns |
| --- | --- |
| `SHOW SCHEMAS &quot;&lt;bucket&gt;&quot;` | One row per schema in the bucket, in a column called `name`. |
| `SHOW TABLES &quot;&lt;bucket&gt;/&lt;schema&gt;&quot;` | One row per table in the schema, in a column called `name`. |
| `SHOW &quot;&lt;bucket&gt;/&lt;schema&gt;&quot;.&lt;table&gt;` | The table's columns, the same as [DESCRIBE](/develop/docs/dev-database-reference-sql-describe). |

- Always name the bucket or schema. A bare `SHOW TABLES` fails with an internal error message, and `SHOW ALL TABLES` fails too.
- Sort the names in your code if you need an order.

## What happens on the cluster

`SHOW` reads the database's catalog. It reads no table data.

## Example

The examples use the `run()` helper and the environment variables described in the [SQL reference](/develop/docs/dev-database-reference-sql-index#example-connect-and-use-a-transaction). This block connects, and creates the schema `docs_sql_show` with two tables:

```
import os
import re

import adbc_driver_manager
import adbc_driver_manager.dbapi as dbapi
import adbc_driver_vastdb

BUCKET = os.environ["VASTDB_BUCKET"]
SCHEMA = f'"{BUCKET}/docs_sql_show"'

def connect(autocommit=True):
    return dbapi.connect(
        driver=adbc_driver_vastdb.get_driver_path(),
        db_kwargs={
            "vast.db.endpoint": os.environ["QE_ENDPOINT"],
            "vast.db.access_key": os.environ["AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"],
            "vast.db.secret_key": os.environ["AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"],
        },
        autocommit=autocommit,
    )

def server_message(e):
    """The server's message in a driver error, without the request ID or the echoed statement."""
    text = re.sub(r"\[req=0x[0-9a-f]+\]: ", "", str(e))
    found = (re.search(r'message: "(.*?)", request_id', text, re.S)
             or re.search(r"description: (.*)\)", text, re.S))
    message = found.group(1) if found else text.strip().splitlines()[-1]
    message = re.sub(r"^Plan query: '.*?' failed with: ", "", message, flags=re.S)
    message = re.split(r"\\n|\n", message)[0].replace('\\"', '"')
    return message.replace(BUCKET, "<bucket>")

def run(sql):
    """Run one statement. Print the rows it returns, or the error."""
    try:
        with conn.cursor() as cur:
            cur.execute(sql)
            rows = cur.fetchall() if cur.description else []
    except (adbc_driver_manager.Error, OSError) as e:
        print(f"{type(e).__name__}: {server_message(e)}")
    else:
        print(rows)

conn = connect()
run(f"CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS {SCHEMA}")
run(f"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {SCHEMA}.orders (id BIGINT, status VARCHAR)")
run(f"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {SCHEMA}.customers (id BIGINT, name VARCHAR)")
```

```
[]
[]
[]
```

List the schema, its tables, and the columns of one table:

```
def names(sql):
    with conn.cursor() as cur:
        cur.execute(sql)
        return sorted(row[0] for row in cur.fetchall())

print([s for s in names(f'SHOW SCHEMAS "{BUCKET}"') if s == "docs_sql_show"])
print(names(f'SHOW TABLES "{BUCKET}/docs_sql_show"'))
run(f"SHOW {SCHEMA}.orders")
```

```
['docs_sql_show']
['customers', 'orders']
[('id', 'BIGINT', 'YES', None, None, None), ('status', 'VARCHAR', 'YES', None, None, None)]
```

`SHOW ALL TABLES` fails:

```
run("SHOW ALL TABLES")
```

```
InternalError: The operator 'ORDER_BY' type=1 is currently not supported for this usage.
```

Clean up:

```
run(f"DROP TABLE IF EXISTS {SCHEMA}.orders")
run(f"DROP TABLE IF EXISTS {SCHEMA}.customers")
run(f"DROP SCHEMA IF EXISTS {SCHEMA}")
conn.close()
```

```
[]
[]
[]
```

## Errors

| Statement | Message | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `SHOW TABLES` with no schema | An internal error message that doesn't say what's wrong | Name the schema: `SHOW TABLES &quot;&lt;bucket&gt;/&lt;schema&gt;&quot;`. |
| `SHOW ALL TABLES` | `InternalError: The operator &apos;ORDER_BY&apos; type=1 is currently not supported for this usage.` | List each schema's tables with `SHOW TABLES &quot;&lt;bucket&gt;/&lt;schema&gt;&quot;`. |

## Trino and Spark

Trino and Spark list schemas and tables with their own `SHOW` statements, through their own catalogs; see [Trino](/develop/docs/dev-database-integrations-trino#names-databases-schemas-and-tables) and [Spark](/develop/docs/dev-database-integrations-spark#spark-sql-and-dataframes).

See also: [DESCRIBE](/develop/docs/dev-database-reference-sql-describe), [CREATE SCHEMA](/develop/docs/dev-database-reference-sql-create-schema).