How can I describe all tables in the database through one statement?

Question

Is there any statement that can describe all tables in a database?

Something like this:

describe * from myDB;

Answer 1

mysql -B -N -u root -pPASSWORD -h somehost \
-e "SELECT DISTINCT CONCAT('describe ', table_name, ';') AS query FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='DATABASE_NAME_HERE' " | \
mysql -B -N -u root -pPASSWORD -h somehost DATABASE_NAME_HERE

Answer 2

This is a variation of @AlexShaffer's excellent comment, modified to mirror what the Mac terminal's mysql monitor outputs when asked to describe a table.

USE information_schema;

SELECT TABLE_NAME 'Table', COLUMN_NAME 'Field', COLUMN_TYPE 'Type', IS_NULLABLE 'Null',
  COLUMN_KEY 'Key', COLUMN_DEFAULT 'Default', EXTRA 'Extra'
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'your_db'
ORDER BY TABLE_NAME;

Answer 3

Not sure if there is a way to get the results to display in a "table" format as it does when running the command from the mysql prompt, but this should describe all tables formatted vertically.

mysql -N -uUSER -pPASSWORD DATABASE_NAME --execute="show tables" | while read table; do mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD DATABASE_NAME --execute="describe $table \G"; done

Answer 4

Please create the bash script like below and it will prompt you for details.

LINUX ONLY - BASH SCRIPT - describe-all-tables.sh

#!/bin/sh

echo ""
read -p 'MySQL db: ' DB
echo ""
read -p 'MySQL user: ' USER
echo ""
read -e -p 'MySQL host: ' -i "localhost" HOSTNAME
echo ""
read -s -p 'MySQL password: ' PASSWORD
echo ""

mysql -N -u${USER} ${DB} -p${PASSWORD} -h ${HOSTNAME} --execute="show tables" | while read table; do mysql -u${USER} -h ${HOSTNAME} ${DB} -p${PASSWORD} -v -t --execute="describe $table"; echo -e "\n"; done

USAGE - /bin/sh describe-all-tables.sh

Answer 5

I am using linux way. First create a ~/.my.cnf to store the username and password for mysql. Next use the snippet below and run it in the linux terminal.

Generate the tables list and filter the header and awk to generate the column. Then, use the same method to DESC table_name.

for i in $(mysql MYDBNAME -e 'SHOW TABLES' | grep -v "Tables_in" | awk '{print $1}'); do echo "TABLE: $i"; mysql MYDBNAME -e "DESC $i"; done

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

There is no statement that describe all tables at once. But you may want to do something like this :

SELECT * FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema = 'db_name';