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mysqlsql-order-byexplain

sort describe table foo output by field alphabetically

I have a sizeable table that I'm actively working on and modifying columns of. It'd be handy if I could sort a describe table by Field name alphabetically to quickly find the definition for a column. The docs for mysql describe nor explain mention anything about sorting. How can I do this?

Solution

  • DESCRIBE and SHOW COLUMNS don't have an option to sort their results. You can read more about them here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/show-columns.html

    If you want a customized list of columns of a table, you can query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

    SELECT COLUMN_NAME, COLUMN_TYPE, COLUMN_DEFAULT, IS_NULLABLE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA='mydatabase' AND TABLE_NAME='mytable';

    Read more about this table here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/columns-table.html