GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION

Returns the effective privileges the current user has on an object, including explicit, implicit, inherited, and role-based privileges.

Because this meta-function only returns effective privileges, GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION only returns privileges with fully-satisfied prerequisites. For a list of prerequisites for common operations, see Privileges Required for Common Database Operations.

For example, a user must have the following privileges to query a table:

  • Schema: USAGE
  • Table: SELECT

If user Brooke has SELECT privileges on table s1.t1 but lacks USAGE privileges on schema s1, Brooke cannot query the table, and GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION does not return SELECT as a privilege for the table.

Inherited privileges are not displayed if privilege inheritance is disabled at the database level.

Syntax

GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION( 'type', '[[database.]schema.]name' );

Parameters

type

Specifies an object type, one of the following:

  • database
  • table
  • schema
  • view
  • sequence
  • model
  • library
  • resource pool
[database.]schema

Specifies a database and schema, by default the current database and public, respectively.
name

Name of the target object

Privileges

None

Example

In the following example, user Glenn has set the REPORTER role and wants to check his effective privileges on schema s1 and table s1.articles.

  • Table s1.articles inherits privileges from its schema (s1).
  • The REPORTER role has the following privileges: 
    • SELECT on schema s1
    • INSERT WITH GRANT OPTION on table s1.articles
  • User Glenn has the following privileges:
    • UPDATE and USAGE on schema s1.
    • DELETE on table s1.articles.

GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION returns the following effective privileges for Glenn on schema s1:

=> SELECT GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION('schema', 's1');
   GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------
 SELECT, UPDATE, USAGE
(1 row)

GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION returns the following effective privileges for Glenn on table s1.articles:

=> SELECT GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION('table', 's1.articles');
   GET_PRIVILEGES_DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------
 INSERT*, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE
(1 row)

See Also