DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Oracle data dictionary-compatible view support has been added

Views that present DB2® catalog information in a way that is compatible to Oracle data dictionary views are now available. The data dictionary is a repository for database metadata.

There are three different versions of each data dictionary view, and each version is identified by the prefix of the view name. Not all versions apply to each view.

USER_* views return information about objects that are owned by the current database user.
ALL_* views return information about objects to which the current user has access.
DBA_* views return information about all objects in the database, regardless of who owns them.

The SELECT privilege is granted to PUBLIC for all USER_* and ALL_* views.

The compatible views are based on DB2 system catalog views and snapshot monitor SQL administrative views. Appropriate privileges on the underlying catalog and snapshot monitor views are required to use the Oracle data dictionary-compatible views.

The data dictionary views are self-describing. The DICTIONARY view returns a listing of all data dictionary views with comments that describe the content of each view. The DICT_COLUMNS view returns a list of all columns in all data dictionary views. With these two views, you can determine what information is available and how to access it.

Oracle data dictionary-compatible view support is enabled through the setting of the DB2_COMPATIBILITY_VECTOR registry variable.

For the complete list of the supported views, see the "Oracle data dictionary-compatible views" topic.