7.22 DESCRIBE syntax (Get information about columns)

{DESCRIBE | DESC} tbl_name {col_name | wild}

DESCRIBE provides information about a table's columns. col_name may be a column name or a string containing the SQL `%' and `_' wildcard characters.

If the column types are different than you expect them to be based on a CREATE TABLE statement, note that MySQL sometimes changes column types. 7.6.1 Silent column specification changes.

This statement is provided for Oracle compatibility.

The SHOW statement provides similar information. SHOW.