Show Column Syntax in MySQL

Posted by admin

May 6, 2008

SHOW [FULL] COLUMNS FROM tbl_name [FROM db_name] [LIKE ‘pattern’]

SHOW COLUMNS lists the columns in a given table. If the column types differ from what you
expect them to be based on your CREATE TABLE statement, note that MySQL sometimes
changes column types when you create or alter a table.

The FULL keyword can be used from MySQL 3.23.32 on. It causes the output to include the
privileges you have for each column. As of MySQL 4.1, FULL also causes any per-column
comments to be displayed.

You can use db_name.tbl_name as an alternative to the tbl_name FROM db_name syntax. These
two statements are equivalent:

mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM mytable FROM mydb;
mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM mydb.mytable;

SHOW FIELDS is a synonym for SHOW COLUMNS. You can also list a table’s columns with the
mysqlshow db_name tbl_name command.

The DESCRIBE statement provides information similar to SHOW COLUMNS.

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