Automatically Define MySQL Table Structure from Another Table

CREATE TABLE command with LIKE keyword will be able to define the structure of a MySQL table same as the structure of another table.

Syntax

CREATE TABLE new_table LIKE old_table;

Example

mysql> Create table employee(ID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, NAME VARCHAR(20));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.21 sec)

mysql> Describe employee;

+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| ID    | int(11)     | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| NAME  | varchar(20) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

2 rows in set (0.07 sec)

The query below will create the table employee1 having a similar structure as table employee. It can be checked by running the DESCRIBE query.

mysql> create table employee1 like employee;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.19 sec)

mysql> describe employee1;

+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| ID    | int(11)     | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| NAME  | varchar(20) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

2 rows in set (0.14 sec)