{DESCRIBE | DESC} tbl_name [col_name | wild]

DESCRIBE is a shortcut for SHOW COLUMNS FROM. See section 13.5.3.1 Retrieving Information about Database, Tables, Columns, and Indexes.

DESCRIBE provides information about a table's columns. col_name may be a column name or a string containing the SQL `%' and `_' wildcard characters to obtain output only for the columns with names matching the string. There is no need to enclose the string in quotes.

If the column types are different from what you expect them to be based on a CREATE TABLE statement, note that MySQL sometimes changes column types. See section 13.2.5.1 Silent Column Specification Changes.

This statement is provided for Oracle compatibility.

The SHOW statement provides similar information

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