title: How can I find the underlying column and table name for an Oracle view?
body: <p>This sounds like it should be simple to do but not so! There is no Oracle (meta-data) view that I can find that gives the underlying column and table name for an Oracle view column. The only way I have found of doing it is to parse the view source SQL (which is far from and exact science).</p>
  
  <p>Just to explain what I want, consider the following example view which I created in SCOTT schema:</p>
  
  <p><pre><code>CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW EMP_DEP
  (
     EMPLOYEE_NAME,
     DEPARTMENT_NAME
  )
  AS
  SELECT 
     ENAME,
     DNAME 
  FROM
     emp a,
     dept b
  WHERE
     a.deptno= b.deptno
  /
  </pre></code></p>
  
  <p>Now given the view and column name EMP_DEP.DEPARTMENT_NAME, I would like to get the underlying table and column name used by the view which is DEPT.DNAME. Does anyone know of a way to get this information that does not involve parsing the view's SQL?</p>