til/mysql/show-tables-that-match-a-pattern.md

Show Tables That Match A Pattern

An unfamiliar database with tons of tables can be a difficult thing to navigate. You may have an idea of the kind of table you are looking for based on a domain concept you've seen elsewhere.

You can pare down the results returned by show tables by including a like clause with a pattern. For example, this statement will show me only tables that have the word user in them:

> show tables like '%user%';
+-------------------------------+
| Tables_in_jbranchaud (%user%) |
+-------------------------------+
| admin_users                   |
| users                         |
+-------------------------------+