MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

DESCRIBE

Synopsis

{DESCRIBE|DESC} table [column]

This statement displays information about the columns of a given table. The DESCRIBE keyword can be abbreviated to DESC:

DESCRIBE workreq;

+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field              | Type    | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| req_id             | int(11) | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment | 
| client_id          | int(11) | YES  |     | NULL    |                | 
| client_description | text    | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                | 
| technician_notes   | text    | YES  |     | NULL    |                | 
+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

For information on a specific column, supply only the column name. For information on multiple columns but not all columns, you can supply a name pattern within quotes and use the wildcard characters % and _. Quotes around the string aren’t necessary unless the string contains spaces.

To list the columns in the workreq table that have names beginning with the characters client, enter the following:

DESCRIBE workreq 'client%';

+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field              | Type    | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| client_id          | int(11) | YES  |     | NULL    |       | 
| client_description | text    | YES  | MUL | NULL    |       | 
+--------------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+

Notice that the keyword LIKE is not used. The fields in the results have the following meanings: ...