How does one find out, using sql commands, a database's tables, and columns names. I have a database that I would like to run reports on, but I do not know the names of tables, nor the column names in the tables. I tried show table with no result. This is a sql database. Thanks, gkenney.

Depends on how you're hitting the database. ADODB has a catalog collection that can provide this for you. If you're hitting the database directly in MSSQL, you can also avail yourself of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA objects, for which there is excellent documentation in BOL/MSDN.

what type of database is this
virtually every SQL db has the capability to find the objects in its db. you 'just' need to know where to look

in an Access/JET db its msysobjects
in MySQL, and SQL Server (and no doubt Sybase) its information_schema

PostgreSQL also supports the information schema.