How do I clone the structure of a table in MySQL?

To clone in MySQL, use LIKE clause. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1
-> (
-> StudentId int,
-> StudentName varchar(20)
-> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.55 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(100,'John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(101,'Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(102,'Carol');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable1;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+-------------+
| StudentId | StudentName |
+-----------+-------------+
| 100       | John        |
| 101       | Sam         |
| 102       | Carol       |
+-----------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to clone a table structure in MySQL −

mysql> create table DemoTable2 LIKE DemoTable1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.53 sec)

Let us check the structure of newly created table −

mysql> show create table DemoTable2;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table        | Create Table
|
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DemoTable2   | CREATE TABLE `demotable2` (`StudentId` int(11) DEFAULT NULL, `StudentName` varchar(20) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 OLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.03 sec)