STV_TBL_PERM - Amazon Redshift
Table columnsSample queriesUsage notes
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STV_TBL_PERM

The STV_TBL_PERM table contains information about the permanent tables in Amazon Redshift, including temporary tables created by a user for the current session. STV_TBL_PERM contains information for all tables in all databases.

This table differs from STV_TBL_TRANS, which contains information about transient database tables that the system creates during query processing.

STV_TBL_PERM is visible only to superusers. For more information, see Visibility of data in system tables and views.

Table columns

Column name Data type Description
slice integer Node slice allocated to the table.
id integer Table ID.
name character(72) Table name.
rows bigint Number of data rows in the slice.
sorted_rows bigint Number of rows in the slice that are already sorted on disk. If this number does not match the ROWS number, vacuum the table to resort the rows.
temp integer Whether or not the table is a temporary table. 0 = false; 1 = true.
db_id integer ID of the database where the table was created.
insert_pristine integer For internal use.
delete_pristine integer For internal use.
backup integer Value that indicates whether the table is included in cluster snapshots. 0 = no; 1 = yes. For more information, see the BACKUP parameter for the CREATE TABLE command.
dist_style integer Distribution style of the table that the slice belongs to. For information on the values, see Viewing distribution styles. For information on distribution styles, see Distribution styles.
block_count integer Number of blocks used by the slice. The value is -1 when the block count can't be calculated.

Sample queries

The following query returns a list of distinct table IDs and names: 

select distinct id, name
from stv_tbl_perm order by name;

   id   |          name
--------+-------------------------
 100571 | category
 100575 | date
 100580 | event
 100596 | listing
 100003 | padb_config_harvest
 100612 | sales
...

Other system tables use table IDs, so knowing which table ID corresponds to a certain table can be very useful. In this example, SELECT DISTINCT is used to remove the duplicates (tables are distributed across multiple slices).

To determine the number of blocks used by each column in the VENUE table, type the following query: 

select col, count(*)
from stv_blocklist, stv_tbl_perm
where stv_blocklist.tbl = stv_tbl_perm.id
and stv_blocklist.slice = stv_tbl_perm.slice
and stv_tbl_perm.name = 'venue'
group by col
order by col;

 col | count
-----+-------
   0 |     8
   1 |     8
   2 |     8
   3 |     8
   4 |     8
   5 |     8
   6 |     8
   7 |     8
(8 rows)

Usage notes

The ROWS column includes counts of deleted rows that have not been vacuumed (or have been vacuumed but with the SORT ONLY option). Therefore, the SUM of the ROWS column in the STV_TBL_PERM table might not match the COUNT(*) result when you query a given table directly. For example, if 2 rows are deleted from VENUE, the COUNT(*) result is 200 but the SUM(ROWS) result is still 202: 

delete from venue
where venueid in (1,2);

select count(*) from venue;
count
-------
200
(1 row)

select trim(name) tablename, sum(rows)
from stv_tbl_perm where name='venue' group by name;

tablename | sum
-----------+-----
venue     | 202
(1 row)

To synchronize the data in STV_TBL_PERM, run a full vacuum the VENUE table.

vacuum venue;

select trim(name) tablename, sum(rows)
from stv_tbl_perm
where name='venue'
group by name;

tablename | sum
-----------+-----
venue     | 200
(1 row)