SQL : programmatically determine if table is view

Question

If I need to determine if a given table is a view, can I do this with a query instead of using '\d' ? I have a script that needs to audit several tables for deletion but don't want to check them all manually.

Answer 1

You can find that information from the information_schema.tables view:

select table_type 
from information_schema.tables 
where table_schema = 'my_schema' and table_name = 'my_table'

table_type column description:

Type of the table: BASE TABLE for a persistent base table (the normal table type), VIEW for a view, FOREIGN TABLE for a foreign table, or LOCAL TEMPORARY for a temporary table