mysqldatabasesqlitedatabase-schemadbtable

Reputation: 29246

Is there an SQLite equivalent to MySQL's DESCRIBE [table]?

I'm just getting started learning SQLite. It would be nice to be able to see the details for a table, like MySQL's DESCRIBE [table]. PRAGMA table_info [table] isn't good enough, as it only has basic information (for example, it doesn't show if a column is a field of some sort or not). Does SQLite have a way to do this?

Upvotes: 514

Answers (9)

twalow

Reputation: 760

.schema user_meta didn't work for me. but .schema did show me all the tables.

I was able to see user_meta table using this command:

sqlite> SELECT * FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name='user_meta';
table|user_meta|user_meta|7|CREATE TABLE user_meta (
    id INTEGER NOT NULL, 
    user_id INTEGER NOT NULL, 
    first_name VARCHAR(10), 
    last_name VARCHAR(10), 
    PRIMARY KEY (id), 
    CONSTRAINT fk_user_id FOREIGN KEY(user_id) REFERENCES user (id), 
    UNIQUE (user_id)
)

Upvotes: 1

ahmnouira

Reputation: 3481

For example, I have these tables in my Django SQLite database:

sqlite3 db.sqlite3

Then

.tables

In order to describe and see the SQL statements for shop_product table, you can run the following command:

.schema shop_product

Illustration

Upvotes: 0

Super Kai - Kazuya Ito

Reputation: 1

".schema" can show more details of tables including Table Constraints than "PRAGMA".

This command below shows the details of all tables:

.schema

This command below shows the details of all tables in a well-formatted way:

.schema --indent

This command below shows the details of one table:

.schema <table_name>

These commands below show the details of one table in a well-formatted way:

.schema --indent <table_name>

Or:

.schema <table_name> --indent

In addition, these commands below show the details about ".schema":

.help .schema

Or:

.help schema

Then, this is how it looks like below:

sqlite> .help .schema 
.schema ?PATTERN?        Show the CREATE statements matching PATTERN
   Options:
      --indent             Try to pretty-print the schema
      --nosys              Omit objects whose names start with "sqlite_"

Upvotes: 7

Ned Batchelder

Reputation: 375912

The SQLite command line utility has a .schema TABLENAME command that shows you the create statements.

Upvotes: 624

Mark Rushakoff

Reputation: 258388

Are you looking for the SQL used to generate a table? For that, you can query the sqlite_schema table:

sqlite> CREATE TABLE foo (bar INT, quux TEXT);
sqlite> SELECT * FROM sqlite_schema;
table|foo|foo|2|CREATE TABLE foo (bar INT, quux TEXT)
sqlite> SELECT sql FROM sqlite_schema WHERE name = 'foo';
CREATE TABLE foo (bar INT, quux TEXT)

Alternative Names

The schema table can always be referenced using the name sqlite_schema, especially if qualifed by the schema name like main.sqlite_schema or temp.sqlite_schema. But for historical compatibility, some alternative names are also recognized, including:

sqlite_master

sqlite_temp_schema

sqlite_temp_master

Alternatives (2) and (3) only work for the TEMP database associated with each database connection, but alternative (1) works anywhere.

Upvotes: 134

Mujeeb Ishaque

Reputation: 2731

If you're using a graphical tool. It shows you the schema right next to the table name. In case of DB Browser For Sqlite, click to open the database(top right corner), navigate and open your database, you'll see the information populated in the table as below.

right click on the record/table_name, click on copy create statement and there you have it.

Hope it helped some beginner who failed to work with the commandline.

Upvotes: 2

Radagast

Reputation: 121

To prevent that people are mislead by some of the comments to the other answers:

If .schema or query from sqlite_master not gives any output, it indicates a non-existent tablename, e.g. this may also be caused by a ; semicolon at the end for .schema, .tables, ... Or just because the table really not exists. That .schema just doesn't work is very unlikely and then a bug report should be filed at the sqlite project.

... .schema can only be used from a command line; the above commands > can be run as a query through a library (Python, C#, etc.). – Mark Rushakoff Jul 25 '10 at 21:09

'can only be used from a command line' may mislead people. Almost any (likely every?) programming language can call other programs/commands. Therefore the quoted comment is unlucky as calling another program, in this case sqlite, is more likely to be supported than that the language provides a wrapper/library for every program (which not only is prone to incompleteness by the very nature of the masses of programs out there, but also is counter acting single-source principle, complicating maintenance, furthering the chaos of data in the world).

Upvotes: 9