52.7. pg_attribute
 The catalog pg_attribute stores information about table columns. There will be exactly one pg_attribute row for every column in every table in the database. (There will also be attribute entries for indexes, and indeed all objects that have pg_class entries.) 
The term attribute is equivalent to column and is used for historical reasons.
Table 52.7. pg_attribute Columns
| Column Type Description | 
|---|
| 
 The table this column belongs to | 
| 
 The column name | 
| 
 The data type of this column (zero for a dropped column) | 
| 
 
 | 
| 
  A copy of  | 
| 
  The number of the column. Ordinary columns are numbered from 1 up. System columns, such as  | 
| 
 Number of dimensions, if the column is an array type; otherwise 0. (Presently, the number of dimensions of an array is not enforced, so any nonzero value effectively means “it's an array”.) | 
| 
 Always -1 in storage, but when loaded into a row descriptor in memory this might be updated to cache the offset of the attribute within the row | 
| 
 
 | 
| 
  A copy of  | 
| 
  A copy of  | 
| 
  Normally a copy of  | 
| 
  The current compression method of the column. Typically this is  | 
| 
 This represents a not-null constraint. | 
| 
  This column has a default expression or generation expression, in which case there will be a corresponding entry in the  | 
| 
  This column has a value which is used where the column is entirely missing from the row, as happens when a column is added with a non-volatile  | 
| 
  If a zero byte ( | 
| 
  If a zero byte ( | 
| 
 This column has been dropped and is no longer valid. A dropped column is still physically present in the table, but is ignored by the parser and so cannot be accessed via SQL. | 
| 
 This column is defined locally in the relation. Note that a column can be locally defined and inherited simultaneously. | 
| 
 The number of direct ancestors this column has. A column with a nonzero number of ancestors cannot be dropped nor renamed. | 
| 
 The defined collation of the column, or zero if the column is not of a collatable data type | 
| 
 Column-level access privileges, if any have been granted specifically on this column | 
| 
 Attribute-level options, as “keyword=value” strings | 
| 
 Attribute-level foreign data wrapper options, as “keyword=value” strings | 
| 
  This column has a one element array containing the value used when the column is entirely missing from the row, as happens when the column is added with a non-volatile  | 
 In a dropped column's pg_attribute entry, atttypid is reset to zero, but attlen and the other fields copied from pg_type are still valid. This arrangement is needed to cope with the situation where the dropped column's data type was later dropped, and so there is no pg_type row anymore. attlen and the other fields can be used to interpret the contents of a row of the table.