DESCRIBE TABLE

Shows information about the columns in a given table. Equivalent to SHOW FIELDS.

tip

SHOW COLUMNS provides similar but more information about the columns of a table.

Syntax

DESC|DESCRIBE [TABLE] [ <database_name>. ]<table_name>

Examples

CREATE TABLE books
  (
     price  FLOAT Default 0.00,
     pub_time DATETIME Default '1900-01-01',
     author VARCHAR
  );

DESC books; 

Field   |Type     |Null|Default                     |Extra|
--------+---------+----+----------------------------+-----+
price   |FLOAT    |YES |0                           |     |
pub_time|TIMESTAMP|YES |'1900-01-01 00:00:00.000000'|     |
author  |VARCHAR  |YES |NULL                        |     |