FIELDS is a synonym for SHOW COLUMNS. Also DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN can be
used as shortcuts.

You can also list a table's columns with:

mariadb-show db_name tbl_name

See the mariadb-show command for more details.

The DESCRIBE statement provides information similar to SHOW COLUMNS. The
information_schema.COLUMNS table provides similar, but more complete,
information.

The SHOW CREATE TABLE, SHOW TABLE STATUS, and SHOW INDEX statements also
provide information about tables.

Examples
--------

SHOW COLUMNS FROM city;
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type     | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Id         | int(11)  | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Name       | char(35) | NO   |     |         |                |
| Country    | char(3)  | NO   | UNI |         |                |
| District   | char(20) | YES  | MUL |         |                |
| Population | int(11)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

SHOW COLUMNS FROM employees WHERE Type LIKE 'Varchar%';
+---------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field         | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| first_name    | varchar(30) | NO   | MUL | NULL    |       |
| last_name     | varchar(40) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| position      | varchar(25) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| home_address  | varchar(50) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| home_phone    | varchar(12) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| employee_code | varchar(25) | NO   | UNI | NULL    |       |
+---------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

URL: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/show-columns/https://mariadb.com/kb/en/show-columns/