Database Column Descriptions

[Tony Ferraro]

Hi,
Is the description for every column actually in the database? I think no.

I need to programatically build a list of every column name for every table plus every column description for audit purposes. Plainly i don't want to do this manually!

The docs do have the data, and its downloadable as html pages. It would require some clever scripting though given the format.
https://docs.automic.com/documentation/webhelp/english/ALL/components/AE/12.2/DB%20Schema/db/_structure/HTML/index.htm

Name Type MSSql Type Oracle Type DB2 Type Postgresql Nullable Description ACMT_Idnr int NUMBER(38,0) int int false Primary Key ACMT_AH_Idnr int NUMBER(38,0) int int false Reference to AH ACMT_TimeStamp datetime DATE timestamp timestamp true UTC - Time comment added

I want this format - 

Name	Description
ACMT_Idnr	Primary Key
ACMT_AH_Idnr	Reference to AH
ACMT_TimeStamp	UTC - Time comment added

Any clever suggestions?!

Thanks!

[Libor Pospichal]

Try this in bash:

Column name:
$ xmllint --html --xpath '/html/body/table[1]/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/text()' ABLOB.html
ABLOB_AH_Idnr

Description:
$ xmllint --html --xpath '/html/body/table[1]/tbody/tr[1]/td[7]/text()' ABLOB.html
Reference to AH

[Tony Ferraro]

Hey Thanks Libor thanks useful.

[Libor Pospichal]

Happy to help. It needs some polishing but you probably got the idea.

Good news is that DB Schema documentation is very simple HTML which makes this task easier.

Have fun!