Hi all,
I am building an application where the data source for the application logic can be an arbitrary HANA data source, for example a column store table, a view, an analytical view, ...
I would like to find out programmatically
1) whether the data source exists (I know its schema and name but not the kind of data source, i.e. whether it is a table, a view, an analytical view, ....)
2) which columns the data source exposes to be used in SELECT statements.
I know, of course, about some HANA system views where I can find these info for specific data sources, for example for tables. However, how to do this in a more generic way?
I am thinking about using the following SQL statement:
SELECT * FROM <data source> WHERE 1=2
which should give a result set consisting of empty columns from which I can see the column names of the data source.
If the execution of this statement fails this would be a hint that the data source itself does not exist.
Will this work for all kind of data sources?
Any recommendations for an alternative approach?
Best regards, Hans-Georg