MySQL Show Columns

The MySQL can retrieve information about the columns in a table using the SHOW COLUMNS statement or the DESCRIBE statement. These statements allow you to view details about the columns in a specified table, including the column name, data type, constraints, and other attributes.

The basic syntax for the SHOW COLUMNS statement is as follows:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM table_name;

Alternatively, you can use the DESCRIBE statement, which has the same effect:

DESCRIBE table_name;

Here’s a breakdown of each part of these statements:

• SHOW COLUMNS or DESCRIBE: These are the keywords to initiate the command.
• FROM table_name or simply table_name: You specify the name of the table for which you want to view the columns. You can use either format.

Here’s an example of how to use the SHOW COLUMNS statement:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM employees;

Or, you can use the DESCRIBE statement with the same effect:

DESCRIBE employees;

The result set will provide information about the columns in the employees table, including the column name, data type, whether the column allows null values, the default value, and additional column attributes.

The output will look something like this:

Field          | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra
employee_id    | INT         | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment
first_name     | VARCHAR(50) | YES  |     | NULL    |
last_name      | VARCHAR(50) | YES  |     | NULL    |
hire_date      | DATE        | YES  |     | NULL    |

You can use this information to understand the structure of the table, the data types of the columns, and whether there are any constraints applied to the columns. This can be helpful for database schema exploration and understanding the layout of your tables.