When we have a table with a generated invisible primary key (GIPK) in MySQL, we can usually see its definition when we use various SHOW
statements such as SHOW CREATE TABLE
, SHOW COLUMNS
, and SHOW INDEX
, as well as when we query information schema tables such as information_schema.columns
.
But there is a way of hiding the GIPK from such statements. It all comes down to the show_gipk_in_create_table_and_information_schema
variable. Yes, there’s actually a system variable that allows us to hide GIPKs from the output of various SHOW
statements and information schema tables.