File: //lib/python3/dist-packages/awscli/examples/athena/get-table-metadata.rst
**To return metadata information about a table**
The following ``get-table-metadata`` example returns metadata information about the ``counties`` table, including including column names and their datatypes, from the ``sampledb`` database of the ``AwsDataCatalog`` data catalog. ::
aws athena get-table-metadata \
--catalog-name AwsDataCatalog \
--database-name sampledb \
--table-name counties
Output::
{
"TableMetadata": {
"Name": "counties",
"CreateTime": 1593559968.0,
"LastAccessTime": 0.0,
"TableType": "EXTERNAL_TABLE",
"Columns": [
{
"Name": "name",
"Type": "string",
"Comment": "from deserializer"
},
{
"Name": "boundaryshape",
"Type": "binary",
"Comment": "from deserializer"
},
{
"Name": "motto",
"Type": "string",
"Comment": "from deserializer"
},
{
"Name": "population",
"Type": "int",
"Comment": "from deserializer"
}
],
"PartitionKeys": [],
"Parameters": {
"EXTERNAL": "TRUE",
"inputformat": "com.esri.json.hadoop.EnclosedJsonInputFormat",
"location": "s3://awsdoc-example-bucket/json",
"outputformat": "org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.HiveIgnoreKeyTextOutputFormat",
"serde.param.serialization.format": "1",
"serde.serialization.lib": "com.esri.hadoop.hive.serde.JsonSerde",
"transient_lastDdlTime": "1593559968"
}
}
}
For more information, see `Showing Table Details: get-table-metadata <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/datastores-hive-cli.html#datastores-hive-cli-showing-details-of-a-table>`__ in the *Amazon Athena User Guide*.