DESCRIBE

DESCRIBE

DESCRIBE displays the structure of a table, including column names, types, nullability, key constraints, and default values.

Syntax

DESCRIBE table_name;
DESC table_name;
DESCRIBE TABLE table_name;

All three forms are equivalent. DESC is shorthand for DESCRIBE.

Output Columns

Column	Description	Examples
Field	Column name	id, name, price
Type	Data type	Integer, Text, Float, Boolean, Timestamp
Null	Whether NULL is allowed	YES or NO
Key	Constraint type	PRI for PRIMARY KEY, empty otherwise
Default	Default value expression	'unnamed', 0, empty if none
Extra	Additional information	Currently reserved

Example

CREATE TABLE products (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT NOT NULL,
    price FLOAT,
    active BOOLEAN DEFAULT TRUE
);

DESCRIBE products;

Result:

Field	Type	Null	Key	Default	Extra
id	Integer	NO	PRI
name	Text	NO
price	Float	YES
active	Boolean	YES		true