Redshift: Table columns can be found in information_schema.columns but not in pg_catalog.pg_table_def

Question

I create a table in Redshift. When I tried to search for the table definition, I get back results from information_schema.columns by running the following query:

select * from information_schema.columns 
where table_name = 'table' and table_schema='schema'

However, when I run a query against pg_catalog.pg_table_def, I don't get back any result.

select * from pg_catalog.pg_table_def 
where tablename = 'table' and  schemaname = 'schema'

Could anyone help me understand why this is happening? The table is created and owned by the account I'm using.

Answer 1

Check show search_path; to make sure you are on the current path where the table was created. As stated on the original AWS redshift documentation.

PG_TABLE_DEF only returns information about tables that are visible to the user.

to get what you want you should run

set search_path to '$user', '<#your_schema#>'; select * from pg_catalog.pg_table_def where tablename = '<#your_table#>';

Hope that helps.