In MySQL if you want to find out what columns are in a given table, you can describe the table and it will show you the columns and the data types associated with that column. However if you need to do this for a large number of tables, it can get a bit repetitive.
Connect to MySQL
# mysql Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 12 Server version: 5.1.37 Source distribution Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
Show the Available Databases
mysql> show databases; +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | information_schema | | TST | | mysql | | test | +--------------------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Use the TST Database
Our example lives on the TST database.
mysql> use TST; Database changed
List All Tables on TST
mysql> show tables; +-------------------+ | Tables_in_TST | +-------------------+ | customer | | product | +-------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Describe the Customer Table
mysql> describe customer; +-------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | customer_id | mediumint(8) unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | first_name | varchar(30) | NO | | NULL | | | last_name | varchar(30) | NO | | NULL | | | email | varchar(30) | NO | | NULL | | +-------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ 4 rows in set (0.01 sec)
Describe the Product Table
mysql> describe product; +--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | product_id | mediumint(8) | YES | | NULL | | | product_name | varchar(100) | YES | | NULL | | +--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Now just wash rinse and repeat for all tables… OR
The Easy Way
No sense in killing ourselves. Lets use a tool that does the heavy lifting for us.
# mysqldump --no-data TST -u root -- MySQL dump 10.13 Distrib 5.1.37, for pc-solaris2.11 (i386) -- -- Host: localhost Database: TST -- ------------------------------------------------------ -- Server version 5.1.37 /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */; /*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */; /*!40103 SET @OLD_TIME_ZONE=@@TIME_ZONE */; /*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE='+00:00' */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */; /*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */; -- -- Table structure for table `customer` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `customer`; /*!40101 SET @saved_cs_client = @@character_set_client */; /*!40101 SET character_set_client = utf8 */; CREATE TABLE `customer` ( `customer_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `first_name` varchar(30) NOT NULL, `last_name` varchar(30) NOT NULL, `email` varchar(30) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`customer_id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1; /*!40101 SET character_set_client = @saved_cs_client */; -- -- Table structure for table `product` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `product`; /*!40101 SET @saved_cs_client = @@character_set_client */; /*!40101 SET character_set_client = utf8 */; CREATE TABLE `product` ( `product_id` mediumint(8) DEFAULT NULL, `product_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1; /*!40101 SET character_set_client = @saved_cs_client */; /*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE=@OLD_TIME_ZONE */; /*!40101 SET SQL_MODE=@OLD_SQL_MODE */; /*!40014 SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS */; /*!40014 SET UNIQUE_CHECKS=@OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS */; /*!40101 SET CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */; /*!40101 SET CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */; /*!40101 SET COLLATION_CONNECTION=@OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION */; /*!40111 SET SQL_NOTES=@OLD_SQL_NOTES */; -- Dump completed on 2013-02-05 16:12:23
Now we can spend our time interpreting and understanding the output instead of trying to recurse through every table in the database.