Display a list of databases on a MySQL server

Contributed by qmchenry December 14, 2003  
Tagged: MySQL

To list the databases that exist in a MySQL server, use the ’show databases’ SQL command:

show databases;
+-----------------+
| Database |
+-----------------+
| financial |
| mysql |
| test |
+-----------------+


The mysql database holds user priviledge information and is required for operation of MySQL. The command can be issued from any SQL source including an application with database connectivity (i.e., PHP, Java, etc.) or directly from mysql command (see Connect to a MySQL server using the mysql command for more information).