下面的SQL语句几乎是等价的:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
 WHERE table_name = 'tbl_name'
  [AND table_schema = 'db_name']
  [AND column_name LIKE 'wild']

SHOW COLUMNS
FROM tbl_name
[FROM db_name]
[LIKE 'wild']

参考:INFORMATION_SCHEMA列

调查:

mysql_query('DESCRIBE '.$table);

下面的SQL语句几乎是等价的:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
 WHERE table_name = 'tbl_name'
  [AND table_schema = 'db_name']
  [AND column_name LIKE 'wild']

SHOW COLUMNS
FROM tbl_name
[FROM db_name]
[LIKE 'wild']

参考:INFORMATION_SCHEMA列

你可能还想检查mysql_fetch_array()，如下所示:

$rs = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)) {
//$row[0] = 'First Field';
//$row['first_field'] = 'First Field';
}

我需要列名作为平面数组，而其他答案返回关联数组，所以我使用:

$con = mysqli_connect('localhost',$db_user,$db_pw,$db_name);
$table = 'people';

/**
* Get the column names for a mysql table
**/

function get_column_names($con, $table) {
  $sql = 'DESCRIBE '.$table;
  $result = mysqli_query($con, $sql);

  $rows = array();
  while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    $rows[] = $row['Field'];
  }

  return $rows;
}

$col_names = function get_column_names($con, $table);

$col_names现在等于:

(
    [0] => name
    [1] => parent
    [2] => number
    [3] => chart_id
    [4] => type
    [5] => id
)

mysql_list_fields函数可能会引起您的兴趣;但是，正如手册所述:

该函数不建议使用。它是 最好使用mysql_query()来 而不是使用SQL SHOW COLUMNS FROM table [LIKE 'name']语句。