MySQL includes the @@version system variable and the VERSION() function that enable you to find out what version of MySQL you’re running.

The VERSION() Function

Here’s an example of using the VERSION() function:

SELECT VERSION();

This simply returns the version number and no more. Like this:

8.0.11

The @@version System Variable

Here’s an example of using the @@version variable:

SELECT @@version;

This also returns only the version number. Like this:

8.0.11

The SHOW VARIABLES Command

You can also use the SHOW VARIABLES command to list out all system variables. This command outputs all system variables. But because there are a lot of system variables, you probably want to narrow the results with a LIKE clause.

Like this:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE "%version%";

This results in something like this:

Variable_name	Value
innodb_version	8.0.11
protocol_version	10
slave_type_conversions
tls_version	TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2
version	8.0.11
version_comment	MySQL Community Server – GPL
version_compile_machine	x86_64
version_compile_os	macos10.13
version_compile_zlib	1.2.11