How to get database structure in MySQL via query

Question

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?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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

SHOW CREATE TABLE YourTableName;

Answer 3

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

where Table_schema is database name

Answer 4

I think that what you're after is DESCRIBE

DESCRIBE table;

You can also use SHOW TABLES

SHOW TABLES;

to get a list of the tables in your database.

Answer 5

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 |         |
+-------+-------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+

Answer 6

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

works for getting all column names