Re: Get a list of databases?

[Kevin Hunter <hunteke(at)earlham(dot)edu>]

On 27 Feb 2007 at 3:12p +0900, Joseph Speigle wrote:
> > My code needs to be able to allow the user to select which
> > database to connect to.
> >
> > Is there a programmatic way to get a list of the databases
> > managed by a pgsql server?
> you mean like 'psql >\l' ?
> try
> select datname from pg_database;

I found that setting the ECHO_HIDDEN psql runtime variable to be fairly 
informative with something like this.  It basically explains exactly the 
queries it runs against the DB to do anything.  Either from the 
commandline or in your .psqlrc file:

\set ECHO_HIDDEN TRUE

Then do something mundane like '\d'.

HTH,

Kevin