How can I describe all tables in the database through a single statement in MySQL?

You can use INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS to describe all tables in database through a single statement. The syntax is as follows.

SELECT *FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA=’yourDatabaseName’\G

Here I am using my database sample with two tables.

The table names are as follows −

• mytable
• yourtable

Implement the above syntax for your database. The query is as follows −

mysql> select * FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema = 'sample'\G

The following is the output describing the two tables in our database.

*************************** 1. row ***************************
TABLE_CATALOG: def
TABLE_SCHEMA: sample
TABLE_NAME: mytable
COLUMN_NAME: id
ORDINAL_POSITION: 1
COLUMN_DEFAULT: NULL
IS_NULLABLE: YES
DATA_TYPE: int
CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH: NULL
CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH: NULL
NUMERIC_PRECISION: 10
NUMERIC_SCALE: 0
DATETIME_PRECISION: NULL
CHARACTER_SET_NAME: NULL
COLLATION_NAME: NULL
COLUMN_TYPE: int(11)
COLUMN_KEY:
EXTRA:
PRIVILEGES: select,insert,update,references
COLUMN_COMMENT:
GENERATION_EXPRESSION:
SRS_ID: NULL
*************************** 2. row ***************************
TABLE_CATALOG: def
TABLE_SCHEMA: sample
TABLE_NAME: mytable
COLUMN_NAME: Name
ORDINAL_POSITION: 2
COLUMN_DEFAULT: NULL
IS_NULLABLE: YES
DATA_TYPE: varchar
CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH: 100
CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH: 400
NUMERIC_PRECISION: NULL
NUMERIC_SCALE: NULL
DATETIME_PRECISION: NULL
CHARACTER_SET_NAME: utf8mb4
COLLATION_NAME: utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci
COLUMN_TYPE: varchar(100)
COLUMN_KEY:
EXTRA:
PRIVILEGES: select,insert,update,references
COLUMN_COMMENT:
GENERATION_EXPRESSION:
SRS_ID: NULL
*************************** 3. row ***************************
TABLE_CATALOG: def
TABLE_SCHEMA: sample
TABLE_NAME: yourtable
COLUMN_NAME: id
ORDINAL_POSITION: 1
COLUMN_DEFAULT: NULL
IS_NULLABLE: YES
DATA_TYPE: int
CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH: NULL
CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH: NULL
NUMERIC_PRECISION: 10
NUMERIC_SCALE: 0
DATETIME_PRECISION: NULL
CHARACTER_SET_NAME: NULL
COLLATION_NAME: NULL
COLUMN_TYPE: int(11)
COLUMN_KEY:
EXTRA:
PRIVILEGES: select,insert,update,references
COLUMN_COMMENT:
GENERATION_EXPRESSION:
SRS_ID: NULL
*************************** 4. row ***************************
TABLE_CATALOG: def
TABLE_SCHEMA: sample
TABLE_NAME: yourtable
COLUMN_NAME: YourName
ORDINAL_POSITION: 2
COLUMN_DEFAULT: NULL
IS_NULLABLE: YES
DATA_TYPE: varchar
CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH: 100
CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH: 400
NUMERIC_PRECISION: NULL
NUMERIC_SCALE: NULL
DATETIME_PRECISION: NULL
CHARACTER_SET_NAME: utf8mb4
COLLATION_NAME: utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci
COLUMN_TYPE: varchar(100)
COLUMN_KEY:
EXTRA:
PRIVILEGES: select,insert,update,references
COLUMN_COMMENT:
GENERATION_EXPRESSION:
SRS_ID: NULL
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)