Below are four ways to list out the views in a MySQL database using SQL or the command line.
The SHOW TABLES Command
The SHOW TABLES command lists the non-TEMPORARY tables, sequences and views in a given MySQL database. We can use the WHERE clause to narrow it to just views.
We can also use the FULL modifier to return a second column that displays the type:
SHOW FULL TABLES
WHERE Table_Type LIKE 'VIEW';Result:
+-----------------+------------+ | Tables_in_music | Table_type | +-----------------+------------+ | valbumsartists | VIEW | | valbumsgenres | VIEW | | vallalbums | VIEW | | vallartists | VIEW | | vallgenres | VIEW | +-----------------+------------+
Omitting the WHERE clause returns all types:
SHOW FULL TABLES;Result:
+-----------------+------------+ | Tables_in_music | Table_type | +-----------------+------------+ | Albums | BASE TABLE | | Artists | BASE TABLE | | Genres | BASE TABLE | | valbumsartists | VIEW | | valbumsgenres | VIEW | | vallalbums | VIEW | | vallartists | VIEW | | vallgenres | VIEW | +-----------------+------------+
The SHOW TABLE STATUS Command
In MySQL, the SHOW TABLE STATUS command is similar to the SHOW TABLES command but provides more extensive information about each (non-TEMPORARY) table.
Example:
SHOW TABLE STATUS;Result:
+----------------+--------+---------+------------+------+----------------+-------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+--------------------+----------+----------------+---------+ | Name | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows | Avg_row_length | Data_length | Max_data_length | Index_length | Data_free | Auto_increment | Create_time | Update_time | Check_time | Collation | Checksum | Create_options | Comment | +----------------+--------+---------+------------+------+----------------+-------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+--------------------+----------+----------------+---------+ | Albums | InnoDB | 10 | Dynamic | 20 | 819 | 16384 | 0 | 32768 | 0 | 21 | 2021-11-13 12:56:02 | 2021-11-13 12:56:13 | NULL | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | NULL | | | | Artists | InnoDB | 10 | Dynamic | 16 | 1024 | 16384 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2021-11-13 12:56:02 | 2021-11-13 12:56:13 | NULL | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | NULL | | | | Genres | InnoDB | 10 | Dynamic | 8 | 2048 | 16384 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2021-11-13 12:56:02 | 2021-11-13 12:56:13 | NULL | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | NULL | | | | valbumsartists | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2021-11-15 06:02:24 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | VIEW | | valbumsgenres | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2021-11-15 06:09:47 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | VIEW | | vallalbums | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2021-11-15 06:12:51 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | VIEW | | vallartists | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2021-11-15 06:13:02 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | VIEW | | vallgenres | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2021-11-15 06:12:36 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | VIEW | +----------------+--------+---------+------------+------+----------------+-------------+-----------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+--------------------+----------+----------------+---------+
It also accepts a WHERE and LIKE clause in case you want to narrow down the results.
The information_schema.TABLES Table
We can also query the information_schema.TABLES table:
SELECT
TABLE_SCHEMA,
TABLE_NAME,
TABLE_TYPE
FROM
information_schema.TABLES
WHERE
TABLE_SCHEMA LIKE 'music' AND TABLE_TYPE LIKE 'VIEW';Result:
+--------------+----------------+------------+ | TABLE_SCHEMA | TABLE_NAME | TABLE_TYPE | +--------------+----------------+------------+ | Music | valbumsartists | VIEW | | Music | valbumsgenres | VIEW | | Music | vallgenres | VIEW | | Music | vallalbums | VIEW | | Music | vallartists | VIEW | +--------------+----------------+------------+
In this case, I returned all views from the database called music. Querying this without filtering the results by TABLE_SCHEMA returns views from all databases. Similarly, querying it without filtering by TABLE_TYPE returns all table types.
The mysqlshow Client
Another way to do it is with the mysqlshow utility.
To use this option, open a command line prompt/terminal window and run the following:
mysqlshow --user root --password music;Be sure to replace music with the database you’re interested in, and root with the applicable user. The --password bit results in the user being prompted for the password.
Result:
Enter password: Database: music +----------------+ | Tables | +----------------+ | Albums | | Artists | | Genres | | valbumsartists | | valbumsgenres | | vallalbums | | vallartists | | vallgenres | +----------------+
The mysqlshow client returns views and tables.
The output displays only the names of those databases, tables, or columns for which the user has some privileges.
If no database is given then all matching databases are shown. If no table is given, then all matching tables in database are shown. If no column is given, then all matching columns and column types in table are shown.