Here are four ways to get the data type of a column in MySQL.

The SHOW COLUMNS Statement

The SHOW COLUMNS statement displays information about the columns in a given table or view. We can pass the name of the table or view to return information on its columns:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM Pets;

Result:

+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetId     | int         | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| PetTypeId | int         | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| OwnerId   | int         | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| PetName   | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| DOB       | date        | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

We can narrow it down to just one column if required:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM Pets
WHERE Field = 'PetName';

Result:

+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field   | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetName | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

The DESCRIBE / DESC Statement

The DESCRIBE statement is a shortcut for the SHOW COLUMNS FROM syntax:

DESCRIBE Pets;

Result:

+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetId     | int         | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| PetTypeId | int         | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| OwnerId   | int         | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| PetName   | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| DOB       | date        | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

Just append the column name to narrow it to one column:

DESCRIBE Pets PetName;

Result:

+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field   | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetName | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

You can also use wildcards:

DESCRIBE Pets 'Pet%';

Result:

+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetId     | int         | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| PetTypeId | int         | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| PetName   | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+-----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

You can also shorten it to DESC:

DESC Pets PetName;

Result:

+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field   | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| PetName | varchar(60) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+---------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

The information_schema.columns View

The information_schema.columns view contains information about columns:

SELECT 
    COLUMN_NAME, 
    DATA_TYPE, 
    CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH AS MAX_LENGTH, 
    CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH AS OCTET_LENGTH 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = DATABASE()
AND TABLE_NAME = 'Pets' 
AND COLUMN_NAME = 'PetName';

Result:

+-------------+-----------+------------+--------------+
| COLUMN_NAME | DATA_TYPE | MAX_LENGTH | OCTET_LENGTH |
+-------------+-----------+------------+--------------+
| PetName     | varchar   |         60 |          240 |
+-------------+-----------+------------+--------------+

In this case I used the DATABASE() function to return the name of the current database. You could alternatively use the name of a specific database.

The mysqlshow Utility

The mysqlshow utility shows the structure of a MySQL database (databases, tables, columns and indexes).

This utility is run on its own. In other words, don’t run this from within MySQL. Instead, open a new terminal/command line window and run it from there.

Example:

mysqlshow -u root PetHotel Pets PetName

Result:

+---------+-------------+--------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+---------------------------------+---------+
| Field   | Type        | Collation          | Null | Key | Default | Extra | Privileges                      | Comment |
+---------+-------------+--------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+---------------------------------+---------+
| PetName | varchar(60) | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | NO   |     |         |       | select,insert,update,references |         |
+---------+-------------+--------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+---------------------------------+---------+

In this example, PetHotel is the name of the database, Pets is the table, and PetName is the column that I’m interested in.

I also provided the username for which to connect with. The utility accepts quite a few options. See the MySQL documentation for more information.