Comments on: SHOW COLUMN TYPES: A hidden MySQL treat? http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/09/19/show-column-types-a-hidden-mysql-treat/ Stay curious! Fri, 10 May 2013 18:25:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: sheeri http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/09/19/show-column-types-a-hidden-mysql-treat/#comment-1916 sheeri Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:56:16 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=230#comment-1916 wow!!! Great stuff.

]]> By: Dmitry http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/09/19/show-column-types-a-hidden-mysql-treat/#comment-1901 Dmitry Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:01:01 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=230#comment-1901 hm, 1st works, but 2nd doesn’t:

root:test> help column types;
Nothing found
Please try to run 'help contents' for a list of all accessible topics

Server version: 5.0.24a-standard-log

]]> By: Frank Mash http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/09/19/show-column-types-a-hidden-mysql-treat/#comment-1898 Frank Mash Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:29:07 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=230#comment-1898 Xaprb,

Great find man. I didn’t know either.

Frank

]]> By: Roland Bouman http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/09/19/show-column-types-a-hidden-mysql-treat/#comment-1896 Roland Bouman Wed, 20 Sep 2006 08:12:42 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=230#comment-1896 Nice one!

Did not know this feature existed.

As for the information schema: I think the standard does not define a separate view for data types because it silently assumes existence of the standard datatypes.

I know SQL server does expose this information in the systypes (or sysdatatypes, can’t remember exactly which one) system table.

I actually filed a feature request to add this information to the information schema (http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=11665) but it was bumped. I still think it would be incredibly useful (for GUI tools and such): the fact that it is not defined in the standard cannot be the reason to not expose the information.

(There are already proprietary additions to the MySQL information schema, and the the SQL standard has a habit of following practice rather than heading it)

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