[mysql] How to get database structure in MySQL via query

Is it possible to somehow get structure of MySQL database, or just some table with simple query?

Or is there another way, how can I do it?

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'test' AND TABLE_NAME ='products'; 

where Table_schema is database name

SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA='bodb' AND TABLE_NAME='abc';

works for getting all column names

In the following example,

playground is the database name and equipment is the table name

Another way is using SHOW-COLUMNS:5.5 (available also for 5.5>)

$ mysql -uroot -p<password> -h<host> -P<port> -e \
    "SHOW COLUMNS FROM playground.equipment"

And the output:

mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id    | int(11)     | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| type  | varchar(50) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| quant | int(11)     | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| color | varchar(25) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

One can also use mysqlshow-client (also available for 5.5>) like following:

$ mysqlshow -uroot -p<password> -h<host> -P<port> \
    playground equipment

And the output:

mysqlshow: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Database: playground  Table: equipment
+-------+-------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+
| Field | Type        | Collation         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          | Privileges                      | Comment |
+-------+-------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+
| id    | int(11)     |                   | NO   | PRI |         | auto_increment | select,insert,update,references |         |
| type  | varchar(50) | latin1_swedish_ci | YES  |     |         |                | select,insert,update,references |         |
| quant | int(11)     |                   | YES  |     |         |                | select,insert,update,references |         |
| color | varchar(25) | latin1_swedish_ci | YES  |     |         |                | select,insert,update,references |         |
+-------+-------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+

A variation of the first answer that I found useful

Open your command prompt and enter (you dont have to be logged into your mysql server)

mysqldump -hlocalhost -u<root> -p<password>  <dbname>  --compact --no-data > </path_to_mydump/>mysql.dmp

That's the SHOW CREATE TABLE query. You can query the SCHEMA TABLES, too.

SHOW CREATE TABLE YourTableName;

Nowadays, people use DESC instead of DESCRIPTION. For example:- DESC users;

Take a look at the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES table. It contains metadata about all your tables.

Example:

SELECT * FROM `INFORMATION_SCHEMA`.`TABLES`
WHERE TABLE_NAME LIKE 'table1'

The advantage of this over other methods is that you can easily use queries like the one above as subqueries in your other queries.

To get the whole database structure as a set of CREATE TABLE statements, use mysqldump:

mysqldump database_name --compact --no-data

For single tables, add the table name after db name in mysqldump. You get the same results with SQL and SHOW CREATE TABLE:

SHOW CREATE TABLE table;

Or DESCRIBE if you prefer a column listing:

DESCRIBE table;

using this:

SHOW CREATE TABLE `users`;

will give you the DDL for that table

DESCRIBE `users`

will list the columns in that table