It contains METADATA - information about databases. Use SHOW statements to obtain metadata from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database.

• examples:
  • SHOW DATABASES;
  • SHOW TABLES FROM database;
  • SHOW COLUMNS FROM tablename;
  • SHOW STATUS;
  • SHOW PROCESSLIST;
  • SHOW [GLOBAL|SESSION] VARIABLES;
  • SHOW ENGINES;
• also use DESCRIBE command for more detail.
  • DESCRIBE tablename;
  • DESCRIBE INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;