Information Schema TABLES Table

The Information Schema table shows information about the various non-TEMPORARY tables (except tables from the Information Schema database) and views on the server.

It contains the following columns:

Column	Description
`TABLE_CATALOG`	Always `def`.
`TABLE_SCHEMA`	Database name.
`TABLE_NAME`	Table name.
`TABLE_TYPE`	One of `BASE TABLE` for a regular table, `VIEW` for a view, `SYSTEM VIEW` for Information Schema tables, `SYSTEM VERSIONED` for system-versioned tables or `SEQUENCE` for sequences.
`ENGINE`	Storage Engine.
`VERSION`	Version number from the table's .frm file
`ROW_FORMAT`	Row format (see InnoDB, Aria and MyISAM row formats).
`TABLE_ROWS`	Number of rows in the table. Some engines, such as XtraDB and InnoDB may store an estimate.
`AVG_ROW_LENGTH`	Average row length in the table.
`DATA_LENGTH`	For InnoDB/XtraDB, the index size, in pages, multiplied by the page size. For Aria and MyISAM, length of the data file, in bytes. For MEMORY, the approximate allocated memory.
`MAX_DATA_LENGTH`	Maximum length of the data file, ie the total number of bytes that could be stored in the table. Not used in XtraDB and InnoDB.
`INDEX_LENGTH`	Length of the index file.
`DATA_FREE`	Bytes allocated but unused. For InnoDB tables in a shared tablespace, the free space of the shared tablespace with small safety margin. An estimate in the case of partitioned tables - see the `PARTITIONS` table.
`AUTO_INCREMENT`	Next AUTO_INCREMENT value.
`CREATE_TIME`	Time the table was created.
`UPDATE_TIME`	Time the table was last updated. On Windows, the timestamp is not updated on update, so MyISAM values will be inaccurate. In InnoDB, if shared tablespaces are used, will be NULL, while buffering can also delay the update, so the value will differ from the actual time of the last `UPDATE`, `INSERT` or `DELETE`.
`CHECK_TIME`	Time the table was last checked. Not kept by all storage engines, in which case will be `NULL`.
`TABLE_COLLATION`	Character set and collation.
`CHECKSUM`	Live checksum value, if any.
`CREATE_OPTIONS`	Extra `CREATE TABLE` options.
`TABLE_COMMENT`	Table comment provided when MariaDB created the table.
`MAX_INDEX_LENGTH`	Maximum index length (supported by MyISAM and Aria tables). Added in MariaDB 10.3.5.
`TEMPORARY`	Placeholder to signal that a table is a temporary table. Currently always "N", except "Y" for generated information_schema tables and NULL for views. Added in MariaDB 10.3.5.

Although the table is standard in the Information Schema, all but TABLE_CATALOG, TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TABLE_TYPE, ENGINE and VERSION are MySQL and MariaDB extensions.

SHOW TABLES lists all tables in a database.

Examples

From MariaDB 10.3.5:

SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='test'\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
   TABLE_CATALOG: def
    TABLE_SCHEMA: test
      TABLE_NAME: xx5
      TABLE_TYPE: BASE TABLE
          ENGINE: InnoDB
         VERSION: 10
      ROW_FORMAT: Dynamic
      TABLE_ROWS: 0
  AVG_ROW_LENGTH: 0
     DATA_LENGTH: 16384
 MAX_DATA_LENGTH: 0
    INDEX_LENGTH: 0
       DATA_FREE: 0
  AUTO_INCREMENT: NULL
     CREATE_TIME: 2020-11-18 15:57:10
     UPDATE_TIME: NULL
      CHECK_TIME: NULL
 TABLE_COLLATION: latin1_swedish_ci
        CHECKSUM: NULL
  CREATE_OPTIONS: 
   TABLE_COMMENT: 
MAX_INDEX_LENGTH: 0
       TEMPORARY: N
*************************** 2. row ***************************
   TABLE_CATALOG: def
    TABLE_SCHEMA: test
      TABLE_NAME: xx4
      TABLE_TYPE: BASE TABLE
          ENGINE: MyISAM
         VERSION: 10
      ROW_FORMAT: Fixed
      TABLE_ROWS: 0
  AVG_ROW_LENGTH: 0
     DATA_LENGTH: 0
 MAX_DATA_LENGTH: 1970324836974591
    INDEX_LENGTH: 1024
       DATA_FREE: 0
  AUTO_INCREMENT: NULL
     CREATE_TIME: 2020-11-18 15:56:57
     UPDATE_TIME: 2020-11-18 15:56:57
      CHECK_TIME: NULL
 TABLE_COLLATION: latin1_swedish_ci
        CHECKSUM: NULL
  CREATE_OPTIONS: 
   TABLE_COMMENT: 
MAX_INDEX_LENGTH: 17179868160
       TEMPORARY: N
...

Example with temporary = 'y', from MariaDB 10.3.5:

SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables WHERE temporary='y'\G
 *************************** 1. row ***************************
   TABLE_CATALOG: def
    TABLE_SCHEMA: information_schema
      TABLE_NAME: INNODB_FT_DELETED
      TABLE_TYPE: SYSTEM VIEW
          ENGINE: MEMORY
         VERSION: 11
      ROW_FORMAT: Fixed
      TABLE_ROWS: NULL
  AVG_ROW_LENGTH: 9
     DATA_LENGTH: 0
 MAX_DATA_LENGTH: 9437184
    INDEX_LENGTH: 0
       DATA_FREE: 0
  AUTO_INCREMENT: NULL
     CREATE_TIME: 2020-11-17 21:54:02
     UPDATE_TIME: NULL
      CHECK_TIME: NULL
 TABLE_COLLATION: utf8_general_ci
        CHECKSUM: NULL
  CREATE_OPTIONS: max_rows=1864135
   TABLE_COMMENT: 
MAX_INDEX_LENGTH: 0
       TEMPORARY: Y
...

View Tables in Order of Size

Returns a list of all tables in the database, ordered by size:

SELECT table_schema as `DB`, table_name AS `Table`, 
  ROUND(((data_length + index_length) / 1024 / 1024), 2) `Size (MB)` 
  FROM information_schema.TABLES 
  ORDER BY (data_length + index_length) DESC;

+--------------------+---------------------------------------+-----------+
| DB                 | Table                                 | Size (MB) |
+--------------------+---------------------------------------+-----------+
| wordpress          | wp_simple_history_contexts            |      7.05 |
| wordpress          | wp_posts                              |      6.59 |
| wordpress          | wp_simple_history                     |      3.05 |
| wordpress          | wp_comments                           |      2.73 |
| wordpress          | wp_commentmeta                        |      2.47 |
| wordpress          | wp_simple_login_log                   |      2.03 |
...

Information Schema TABLES Table

Examples

View Tables in Order of Size

See Also