In MySQL, the TABLE statement returns rows and columns of the given table.

The TABLE statement is similar to the SELECT statement, and it can be used as a kind of shorthand version of the SELECT statement.

The TABLE statement was introduced in MySQL 8.0.19.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

TABLE table_name [ORDER BY column_name] [LIMIT number [OFFSET number]]

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate:

TABLE Genres;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       1 | Rock    |
|       2 | Jazz    |
|       3 | Country |
|       4 | Pop     |
|       5 | Blues   |
|       6 | Hip Hop |
|       7 | Rap     |
|       8 | Punk    |
+---------+---------+

That is the equivalent of doing the following:

SELECT * FROM Genres;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       1 | Rock    |
|       2 | Jazz    |
|       3 | Country |
|       4 | Pop     |
|       5 | Blues   |
|       6 | Hip Hop |
|       7 | Rap     |
|       8 | Punk    |
+---------+---------+

Ordering

You can use the ORDER BY clause to order the rows returned by the TABLE statement:

TABLE Genres
ORDER BY Genre ASC;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       5 | Blues   |
|       3 | Country |
|       6 | Hip Hop |
|       2 | Jazz    |
|       4 | Pop     |
|       8 | Punk    |
|       7 | Rap     |
|       1 | Rock    |
+---------+---------+

The LIMIT Clause

You can also limit the rows returned by the TABLE statement by using the LIMIT clause:

TABLE Genres
LIMIT 5;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       1 | Rock    |
|       2 | Jazz    |
|       3 | Country |
|       4 | Pop     |
|       5 | Blues   |
+---------+---------+

You can use OFFSET to specify an offset for the limited results:

TABLE Genres
LIMIT 5 OFFSET 3;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       4 | Pop     |
|       5 | Blues   |
|       6 | Hip Hop |
|       7 | Rap     |
|       8 | Punk    |
+---------+---------+

And you can use ORDER BY and LIMIT together:

TABLE Genres
ORDER BY Genre ASC
LIMIT 5;

Result:

+---------+---------+
| GenreId | Genre   |
+---------+---------+
|       5 | Blues   |
|       3 | Country |
|       6 | Hip Hop |
|       2 | Jazz    |
|       4 | Pop     |
+---------+---------+

Differences Between TABLE and SELECT

Although the TABLE and the SELECT statements are similar, there are some differences. Here are the main differences between TABLE and SELECT:

• The TABLE statement always displays all columns of the table (you can’t explicitly select certain columns).
• The TABLE statement does not allow for any arbitrary filtering of rows. In other words, TABLE does not support any WHERE clause.

See the MySQL documentation for more info.