For those coming from MySQL:
SHOW TABLES = \d
SHOW DATABASES = \l
SHOW COLUMNS = \d table
However the \* commands only work in psql and not via other interfaces, such as queries via PHP. Similar data can be retrieved with the following SQL commands:
SHOW TABLES (\d) = SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'public'
SHOW DATABASES (\l) = SELECT datname FROM pg_database;
SHOW COLUMNS FROM table (\d table) = SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name ='table';
To get the column names in their "natural" order (as in, the order they were created), use:
SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name ='< table >' ORDER BY ordinal_position;
Alternatively you could send psql metacommands to psql directly:
SHOW TABLES -> echo "\d" | psql "database"
Use "psql -tA" for script friendly format.
