~~~ SHOW [FULL] {COLUMNS | FIELDS} {FROM | IN} tbl_name [{FROM | IN} db_name] [LIKE 'pattern' | WHERE expr] ~~~ SHOW COLUMNS displays information about the columns in a given table. It also works for views. SHOW COLUMNS displays information only for those columns for which you have some privilege. You can use **db_name.tbl_name** as an alternative to the tbl_name FROM db_name syntax. In other words, these two statements are equivalent: ~~~ SHOW COLUMNS FROM mytable FROM mydb; SHOW COLUMNS FROM mydb.mytable; ~~~ ~~~ mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM City; +-------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | ID | int(11) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | Name | char(35) | NO | | | | | CountryCode | char(3) | NO | MUL | | | | District | char(20) | NO | | | | | Population | int(11) | NO | | 0 | | +-------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ ~~~