Question

desc foo; prints all the columns.

How do I make it list all the columns in a alphabetical manner

Answer 1

You can use the information_schema for that, depending on exactly what you want displayed.

Something like:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, IS_NULLABLE, COLUMN_DEFAULT
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
  WHERE table_name = 'foo'
  AND table_schema = 'foo_schema'
  ORDER BY COLUMN_NAME;