Using INFORMATION_SCHEMA Tables
mysql> mysql> CREATE TABLE mytable ( -> titleID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, -> title varchar(100), -> PRIMARY KEY (titleID) -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) mysql> mysql> SELECT column_name, ordinal_position, column_default, -> data_type, collation_name -> FROM information_schema.columns -> WHERE table_schema="test" AND table_name="mytable"; +-------------+------------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------+ | column_name | ordinal_position | column_default | data_type | collation_name | +-------------+------------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------+ | titleID | 1 | NULL | int | NULL | | title | 2 | NULL | varchar | latin1_swedish_ci | +-------------+------------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.01 sec) mysql> mysql> drop table mytable; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>