Retrieve complete database object definitions (metadata) from the dictionary
Subprocedures:
OPEN Specify the type of object to be retrieved, the version of
its metadata, and the object model.
SET_FILTER Specify restrictions on the objects to be retrieved, for example,
the object name or schema.
SET_COUNT Specify the maximum number of objects to be retrieved in a single
FETCH_xxx call.
GET_QUERY Return the text of the queries that are used by FETCH_xxx.
SET_PARSE_ITEM Enable output parsing by specifying an object attribute to be
parsed and returned.
ADD_TRANSFORM Specify a transform that FETCH_xxx applies to the XML representation
of the retrieved objects.
SET_TRANSFORM_PARAM Specify parameters to the XSL-T stylesheet identified by
transform_handle.
FETCH_xxx Return metadata for objects meeting the criteria established by
OPEN, SET_FILTER, SET_COUNT, ADD_TRANSFORM, and so on.
CLOSE Invalidate the handle returned by OPEN and clean up the associated
state.
GET_XML and GET_DDL Functions
Return the metadata for the specified object as XML or DDL.
For full documentation of the packaged procedures above see the Oracle Manual:
"Oracle9i Supplied PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference"
or the book Oracle Built in Packages by Steven Feuerstein et al
Related Views:
DICTIONARY
DICT_COLUMNS
DBA_OBJECTS ALL_OBJECTS USER_OBJECTS SYS_OBJECTS