13: Viewing the database as a whole

Now that we have some data in the database, let's see what it looks like as a whole. The INFO FOR DB command will do this.

INFO FOR DB;

Run Query

The output shows three schemaless tables. These are automatically created every time you use a CREATE statement for a table that doesn't exist yet. If you want to disable this behaviour, you can start SurrealDB in strict mode. In strict mode, you need to manually define anything before you can use it.

All of the statements inside the INFO FOR DB output are followed by a PERMISSIONS NONE clause, meaning that they can't be accessed by record users - users that aren't core database users.

But inside the Sandbox we are logged in as a root user, so PERMISSIONS NONE doesn't affect us.

{
  accesses: {},
  analyzers: {},
  configs: {},
  functions: {},
  models: {},
  params: {},
  tables: {
    place: 'DEFINE TABLE place TYPE ANY SCHEMALESS PERMISSIONS NONE',
    some_record: 'DEFINE TABLE some_record TYPE ANY SCHEMALESS PERMISSIONS NONE',
    town: 'DEFINE TABLE town TYPE ANY SCHEMALESS PERMISSIONS NONE'
  },
  users: {}
}

One of the tables is called some_record, which we created back on page 6 for a simple demonstration. While we deleted all of its records, the DEFINE TABLE statement to create it in the first place wasn't touched, leaving our database with a DEFINE TABLE some_record that we never used again.

Since we won't be needing it, let's remove it with a REMOVE statement. Since the statement to create it was DEFINE TABLE some_record..., it can be removed with REMOVE TABLE some_record.

REMOVE TABLE some_record;

Run Query

NONE

The output is NONE, showing that the statement succeeded and returned nothing. If you try to run the same REMOVE statement again, you'll see an error instead.

"The table 'some_record' does not exist"

The statements REMOVE DATABASE or REMOVE NAMESPACE or REMOVE INDEX often require removing quite a bit of underlying data. When you execute one of these statements it will return immediately, after which physical deletion of the actual data takes place in the background.