MySql: Show columns but exclude everything except the field names

Question

I\'d like to pull a table\'s field names from MySql into python, and I know that

\'show columns from project\'

will work. And I\'ve read that

Answer 1

You can query MySQL's information_schema database directly for the fieldnames:

select distinct(COLUMN_NAME) from information_schema.COLUMNS where TABLE_NAME='posts';

Answer 2

SHOW COLUMNS FROM `table_name`

This MySQL query will work best, it will show all fields of a MySQL table.

Answer 3

If your goal is a comma-delimited list (Not very Python literate, but that's mostly what you'd want in PHP and Perl) GROUP_CONCAT is your friend:

SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(column_name) FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name='your-table-name-here' GROUP BY TABLE_NAME ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

If you need them quoted this gives you all EXCEPT the outermost quotes:

SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(column_name SEPARATOR '","') FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name='your-table-name-here' GROUP BY TABLE_NAME ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

Answer 4

SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE  table_name = 'your_table'
   AND table_schema = 'database_name'

Answer 5

Pipe the answer to awk:

SHOW columns FROM project; | awk '{ print $1 }'

Answer 6

Although it looks more elegant, you don't need awk for this. MySQL's information_schema.columns table has the info you need.

-- DESCRIBE THE HECK OUT OF THE ENTIRE 'table_name' table in the 'database_name' database

SHOW COLUMNS
FROM database_name.table_name ;

-- SHOW JUST THE COLUMN NAMES for 'table_name' table in the 'database_name' database.

SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'database_name'
AND table_name = 'table_name' ;