Querying the data type of a table/view

Question

Is there a sql statement that will 'return' the data type of a specified table/view?
For instance column x of table y has data type int, is there a statement such as:
SELECT data_type FROM y WHERE column_name = 'x'
I know the above won't work but it gives the gist of what I am looking for.

Answer 1

SQL> select table_name, column_name, data_type, data_length, data_precision, data_scale
  2  from user_tab_columns
  3  where table_name = 'EMP';
TABLE_NA COLUMN_N DATA_TYP DATA_LENGTH DATA_PRECISION DATA_SCALE
EMP      EMPNO    NUMBER            22              4          0
EMP      ENAME    VARCHAR2          10
EMP      JOB      VARCHAR2           9
EMP      MGR      NUMBER            22              4          0
EMP      HIREDATE DATE               7
EMP      SAL      NUMBER            22              7          2
EMP      COMM     NUMBER            22              7          2
EMP      DEPTNO   NUMBER            22              2          0
8 rows selected.
SQL> desc emp
Name                                      Null?    Type
EMPNO                                     NOT NULL NUMBER(4)
ENAME                                              VARCHAR2(10)
JOB                                                VARCHAR2(9)
MGR                                                NUMBER(4)
HIREDATE                                           DATE
SAL                                                NUMBER(7,2)
COMM                                               NUMBER(7,2)
DEPTNO                                             NUMBER(2)
SQL>Message was edited by:
Jens Petersen