Question

Simple question: How can I return the field type of a MySQL table. I know about describe or show column but I just want to return that single parameter. e.g.:

SELECT fieldtype(mycol) FROM mytable
# should return INT or integer for example

Answer 1

You can use

SHOW FIELDS
FROM tableName where Field ='nameOfField'

This will return you result in format of

Field   Type    Null    Key     Default     Extra