How do I show the schema of a table in a MySQL database?

From the [MySQL](

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) console, what command displays the schema of any given table?

SHOW CREATE TABLE yourTable;
or

SHOW COLUMNS FROM yourTable;

You can also use shorthand for describe as `desc` for table description.

> desc [db_name.]table_name;

or

> use db_name; <br>
> desc table_name;

You can also use `explain` for table description.

> explain [db_name.]table_name;

See [official doc](

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)

Will give output like:

+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| id | int(10) | NO | PRI | NULL | |
| name | varchar(20) | YES | | NULL | |
| age | int(10) | YES | | NULL | |
| sex | varchar(10) | YES | | NULL | |
| sal | int(10) | YES | | NULL | |
| location | varchar(20) | YES | | Pune | |
+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

SELECT COLUMN_NAME, TABLE_NAME,table_schema
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS;

Perhaps the question needs to be slightly more precise here about what is required because it *can* be read it two different ways. i.e.

1. How do I get the structure/definition for a table in mysql?
2. How do I get the name of the schema/database this table resides in?

Given the accepted answer, the OP clearly intended it to be interpreted the first way. For anybody reading the question the other way try

SELECT `table_schema`
FROM `information_schema`.`tables`
WHERE `table_name` = 'whatever';

For formatted output:

describe [db_name.]table_name;

For an SQL statement that can be used to create a table:

show create table [db_name.]table_name;