May I introduce you to the family of SHOW commands? SHOW DATABASES - lists all databases on a server SHOW TABLES - lists all tables within your current database SHOW CREATE TABLE xxxxx - returns a table containing a SQL statement you could use to recreate the table xxxxx if you needed to (including all indexes and constraints) SHOW COLUMNS FROM xxxxx - returns a table similar to INFORMATION_SCHEMA.columns but only for the table you specify.
and the list goes on and on: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/SHOW.html Alas, the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views are not production ready. They are being added to MySQL with the 5.x+ branch of development, which is not yet stable. Be patient, many good things are coming with v5. Shawn Green Database Administrator Unimin Corporation - Spruce Pine "Dave Merrill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 01/12/2005 04:07:16 PM: > Hi, mysql newb here, coming mostly from ms sql server. > > I'm wondering how to find out basic info (type, str length, column name if > getting all cols from a list of tables, etc), about a set of columns from a > number of different tables. I'm also interested in getting a list of the > tables in a db. > > SQL Server has a pair of views (information_schema.tables and > information_schema.columns) that were useful for this kind of thing. Since > they're normal views, you can restrict the tables or cols found by table, > column, type, etc, and retrieve only the info you want about them; anything > that works in a std query works here. > > The only way I know of to get this kind of metadata from mysql is explain, > which appears to only return a fixed set of info about all the columns in a > single table. Is there any way to get: > > - A list of tables in a db > - Column info for more than one table at once > - Only certain info about these cols (name and type only, say) > > Thanks, > > Dave Merrill > > > -- > MySQL General Mailing List > For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql > To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
