Oracle: Is there a way to get the column data types for a view?

Question

For a table in oracle, I can query "all_tab_columns" and get table column information, like the data type, precision, whether or not the column is nullable.

In SQL Developer or TOAD, you can click on a view in the GUI and it will spit out a list of the columns that the view returns and the same set of data (data type, precision, nullable, etc).

So my question is, is there a way to query this column definition for a view, the way you can for a table? How do the GUI tools do it?

Answer 1

you can use the ANSI catalog views, should work for most RDBMs

select * 
from information_schema.columns c
join information_schema.tables t on c.table_name = t.table_name
where table_type = 'view'

Answer 2

You can use user_tab_columns (or all_tab_columns and dba_tab_columns respectively) regardless if table_name refers to a view or a table.

Answer 3

View columns appear in all_tab_columns, so you can query them just as you can tables.