How to Show or List Tables in ClickHouse (SHOW TABLES)
Last updated October 3, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team
SHOW TABLES lists tables in the current database, and SHOW TABLES FROM db lists another one. Query system.tables to list tables across every database with engines, row counts and sizes.
SHOW TABLES returns a single name column for the database you are connected to. FROM (or IN) targets another database without switching, LIKE takes standard SQL wildcards, and SHOW FULL TABLES adds the engine column. SHOW DATABASES lists the databases themselves. It is the fastest way to check what exists, but the output is a plain list you cannot filter further or join against.
SHOW TABLES;
SHOW TABLES FROM analytics LIKE '%events%';
SHOW FULL TABLES FROM analytics;List tables in every database
SHOW TABLES only looks at one database. To see every table on the server, query system.tables and leave out the built-in system and information_schema databases, which otherwise add hundreds of rows.
SELECT database, name
FROM system.tables
WHERE database NOT IN ('system', 'INFORMATION_SCHEMA', 'information_schema')
ORDER BY database, name;With engine and size
system.tables is the queryable version and covers every database at once. total_rows is exact for MergeTree tables and NULL for engines that do not track it, such as Distributed or Merge. formatReadableSize turns total_bytes into something human-readable, which makes this the query to reach for when you are hunting down what is filling a disk.
SELECT name, engine, total_rows,
formatReadableSize(total_bytes) AS size
FROM system.tables
WHERE database = 'analytics'
ORDER BY total_bytes DESC;From the command line
clickhouse-client runs a single statement with --query and prints tab-separated output, which is handy in scripts or when you only need a quick look without opening an interactive session.
clickhouse-client --query "SHOW TABLES FROM analytics"Run this in SaturnSQL
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