SHOW has many forms that provide information about databases, tables, columns, or status information about the server. These include:

• SHOW AUTHORS
• SHOW CHARACTER SET [like_or_where]
• SHOW COLLATION [like_or_where]
• SHOW [FULL] COLUMNS FROM tbl_name [FROM db_name] [like_or_where]
• SHOW CONTRIBUTORS
• SHOW CREATE DATABASE db_name
• SHOW CREATE EVENT event_name
• SHOW CREATE PACKAGE package_name
• SHOW CREATE PACKAGE BODY package_name
• SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE proc_name
• SHOW CREATE TABLE tbl_name
• SHOW CREATE TRIGGER trigger_name
• SHOW CREATE VIEW view_name
• SHOW DATABASES [like_or_where]
• SHOW ENGINE engine_name {STATUS | MUTEX}
• SHOW [STORAGE] ENGINES
• SHOW ERRORS [LIMIT [offset,] row_count]
• SHOW [FULL] EVENTS
• SHOW FUNCTION CODE func_name
• SHOW FUNCTION STATUS [like_or_where]
• SHOW GRANTS FOR user
• SHOW INDEX FROM tbl_name [FROM db_name]
• SHOW INNODB STATUS
• SHOW OPEN TABLES [FROM db_name] [like_or_where]
• SHOW PLUGINS
• SHOW PROCEDURE CODE proc_name
• SHOW PROCEDURE STATUS [like_or_where]
• SHOW PRIVILEGES
• SHOW [FULL] PROCESSLIST
• SHOW PROFILE [types] [FOR QUERY n] [OFFSET n] [LIMIT n]
• SHOW PROFILES
• SHOW [GLOBAL | SESSION] STATUS [like_or_where]
• SHOW TABLE STATUS [FROM db_name] [like_or_where]
• SHOW TABLES [FROM db_name] [like_or_where]
• SHOW TRIGGERS [FROM db_name] [like_or_where]
• SHOW [GLOBAL | SESSION] VARIABLES [like_or_where]
• SHOW WARNINGS [LIMIT [offset,] row_count]

like_or_where:
    LIKE 'pattern'
  | WHERE expr

If the syntax for a given SHOW statement includes a LIKE 'pattern' part, 'pattern' is a string that can contain the SQL "%" and "_" wildcard characters. The pattern is useful for restricting statement output to matching values.

Several SHOW statements also accept a WHERE clause that provides more flexibility in specifying which rows to display. See Extended Show.