Reading from Network

This guide explores how to read data from the Solana network by fetching different accounts to understand the structure of a Solana account.

On Solana, all data exists in "accounts". You can think of data on Solana as a public database with a single "Accounts" table, where each entry in this table represents an individual account with the same base Account type.

Accounts

Accounts on Solana can store "state" or "executable" programs. Each account has an "address" (public key) that serves as its unique ID used to locate its corresponding on-chain data.

Solana accounts contain either:

State: Data meant for reading and persistence. This includes information about tokens, user data, or other data defined within a program.
Executable Programs: Accounts containing the actual code of Solana programs. These accounts store instructions that the network executes.

This separation of program code and program state forms a key feature of Solana's Account Model. For more details, refer to the Solana Account Model page.

Fetch Playground Wallet

Next, you can look at a familiar account - your own Playground Wallet. This example fetches this account and examines its structure to understand what a basic Solana account looks like.

Open Example

Click this link to open the example in Solana Playground. You'll see the following code:

client.ts

const address = pg.wallet.publicKey;
const accountInfo = await pg.connection.getAccountInfo(address);

console.log(JSON.stringify(accountInfo, null, 2));

Run Example

In the Playground terminal, type the run command and hit enter:

Terminal

$ run

When you run the code, you'll see the account details for your wallet displayed in the terminal.

Fetch Token Program

Next, this guide examines the Token Extensions program, an executable program for interacting with tokens on Solana.

Open Example

Click this link to open the example in Solana Playground. You'll see the following code:

client.ts

import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";

const address = new PublicKey("TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb");
const accountInfo = await pg.connection.getAccountInfo(address);

console.log(JSON.stringify(accountInfo, null, 2));

Instead of fetching your Playground wallet, this example fetches the Token Extensions Program account.

Run Example

Run the code using the run command in the terminal.

Terminal

$ run

Examine the output and how this program account differs from your wallet account.

Fetch Mint Account

In this step, the guide examines a Mint account, which represents a unique token on the Solana network.

Open Example

Click this link to open the example in Solana Playground. You'll see the following code:

client.ts

import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";

const address = new PublicKey("C33qt1dZGZSsqTrHdtLKXPZNoxs6U1ZBfyDkzmj6mXeR");
const accountInfo = await pg.connection.getAccountInfo(address);

console.log(JSON.stringify(accountInfo, null, 2));

In this example, the code fetches the address of an existing Mint account on devnet.

Run Example

Run the code using the run command.

Terminal

$ run

Deserialize Mint Account Data

An account's data field contains bytes requiring further deserialization into the expected data type. The program that owns the account defines this data structure.

To help with deserialization, most program developers provide helper functions in their client libraries that handle converting the raw bytes into the appropriate data type.

For example, the @solana/spl-token library provides functions like getMint() to help deserialize a token mint account's bytes into the Mint data type.

Open this next example in Solana Playground. You'll see the following code:

client.ts

import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
import { getMint, TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ID } from "@solana/spl-token";

const address = new PublicKey("C33qt1dZGZSsqTrHdtLKXPZNoxs6U1ZBfyDkzmj6mXeR");
const mintData = await getMint(
  pg.connection,
  address,
  "confirmed",
  TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ID,
);

This example uses the getMint() helper function to automatically deserialize the data field of the Mint account.

Run the code using the run command.

Terminal

$ run

You should see the following deserialized Mint account data.

Explanation

Explanation

Explanation

Explanation

Explanation

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