---
title: "14: Schemafull and schemaless | SurrealDB University"
description: "Follow along with interactive SurrealDB lessons featuring hands-on exercises, code examples, and step-by-step instructions."
url: https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-14
---

![Course content preview](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/town.D95IYf2V.avif)

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Course chapters

[Welcome to the Tour of SurrealDB!](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour) [1: Connecting to a database](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-01) [2: Creating records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-02) [3: Using the ONLY keyword](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-03) [4: Non-ASCII record IDs](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-04) [5: Parentheses, indexing, and accessing fields](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-05) [6: Deleting records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-06) [7: Field order in objects](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-07) [8: Tips when selecting records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-08) [9: Casting and aliases](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-09) [10: Affixes](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-10) [11: Updating records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-11) [12: Linking records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-12) [13: Viewing the database as a whole](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-13) [14: Schemafull and schemaless](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-14) [15: Viewing the schema](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-15) [16: Literal types and assertions](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-16) [17: INSERT and using JSON](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-17) [18: FOR loops](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-18) [19: Basic graph relations](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-19) [20: Creating graph edges](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-20) [21: Querying graph relations](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-21) [22: Graph relations at greater depth](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-22) [23: Adding and improving data](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-23) [24: Defining events](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-24) [25: Defining indexes](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-25) [26: Improving the schema](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-26) [27: Visualising graph paths](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-27) [28: Recursive queries: setup](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-28) [29: Recursive queries](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-29) [30: More on recursive queries](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-30) [31: AI vector search](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-31) [Done the tour!](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-32)

# 14: Schemafull and schemaless

Our database now has two schemaless tables.

```
INFO FOR DB;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

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

Schemaless means that the table is free to accept any sort of data that we give it. If the tables were `SCHEMAFULL`, they would have been much stricter. A schemafull table will ignore input for any field except `id` unless it is defined in advance.

```
DEFINE TABLE schemafull_town SCHEMAFULL;-- schemafull_town only has one defined fieldDEFINE FIELD population ON schemafull_town TYPE number;-- So the query succeeds, but 'name' data is ignoredCREATE schemafull_town SET name = "Riverdale", population = 75000;REMOVE TABLE schemafull_town;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

CREATE query output

```surql
[
  {
    id: schemafull_town:q9olode057qz1vdzruuv,
    population: 75000
  }
]
```

The `INFO FOR` command works for other items too, like tables.

```
INFO FOR TABLE place;INFO FOR TABLE town;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

```surql
-------- Query --------

{
  events: {},
  fields: {},
  indexes: {},
  lives: {},
  tables: {}
}

-------- Query --------

{
  events: {},
  fields: {},
  indexes: {},
  lives: {},
  tables: {}
}
```

The empty output shows that `place` and `town` are schemaless, without any defined fields. That means that we could create a town whose `name` is a completely different type, like a number.

```
CREATE town SET name = 9999.999999;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

```surql
[
  {
    id: town:x1hy1y4d21x5dlhndprc,
    name: 9999.999999f
  }
]
```

We don't want people to create towns with names like 9999.999999, so we will create a schema on the next page to ensure that this won't happen. Let's first delete this unwanted town.

```
DELETE town WHERE name = 9999.999999 RETURN BEFORE;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

```surql
[
  {
    id: town:2ciozta7zj7b8yvqfkpm,
    name: 9999.999999f
  }
]
```

Previous

13: Viewing the database as a whole

[Previous](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-13)

Next lesson

15: Viewing the schema

[Next lesson](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-15)

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