Information Schema
Information Schema provides an ANSI-standard way of viewing system metadata. TiDB also provides a number of custom INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables, in addition to the tables included for MySQL compatibility.
Many INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables have a corresponding SHOW statement. The benefit of querying INFORMATION_SCHEMA is that it is possible to join between tables.
Tables for MySQL compatibility
| Table name | Description | 
|---|---|
| CHARACTER_SETS | Provides a list of character sets the server supports. | 
| CHECK_CONSTRAINTS | Provides information about CHECKconstraints on tables. | 
| COLLATIONS | Provides a list of collations that the server supports. | 
| COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY | Explains which collations apply to which character sets. | 
| COLUMNS | Provides a list of columns for all tables. | 
| COLUMN_PRIVILEGES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| COLUMN_STATISTICS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| ENGINES | Provides a list of supported storage engines. | 
| EVENTS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| FILES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| GLOBAL_STATUS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| GLOBAL_VARIABLES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| KEYWORDS | Provides a full list of keywords. | 
| KEY_COLUMN_USAGE | Describes the key constraints of the columns, such as the primary key constraint. | 
| OPTIMIZER_TRACE | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| PARAMETERS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| PARTITIONS | Provides a list of table partitions. | 
| PLUGINS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| PROCESSLIST | Provides similar information to the command SHOW PROCESSLIST. | 
| PROFILING | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS | Provides information on FOREIGN KEYconstraints. | 
| ROUTINES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| SCHEMATA | Provides similar information to SHOW DATABASES. | 
| SCHEMA_PRIVILEGES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| SESSION_STATUS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| SESSION_VARIABLES | Provides similar functionality to the command SHOW SESSION VARIABLES | 
| STATISTICS | Provides information on table indexes. | 
| TABLES | Provides a list of tables that the current user has visibility of. Similar to SHOW TABLES. | 
| TABLESPACES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| TABLE_CONSTRAINTS | Provides information on primary keys, unique indexes and foreign keys. | 
| TABLE_PRIVILEGES | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| TRIGGERS | Not implemented by TiDB. Returns zero rows. | 
| USER_ATTRIBUTES | Summarizes information about user comments and user attributes. | 
| USER_PRIVILEGES | Summarizes the privileges associated with the current user. | 
| VARIABLES_INFO | Provides information about TiDB system variables. | 
| VIEWS | Provides a list of views that the current user has visibility of. Similar to running SHOW FULL TABLES WHERE table_type = 'VIEW' | 
Tables that are TiDB extensions
| Table name | Description | 
|---|---|
| ANALYZE_STATUS | Provides information about tasks to collect statistics. | 
| CLIENT_ERRORS_SUMMARY_BY_HOST | Provides a summary of errors and warnings generated by client requests and returned to clients. | 
| CLIENT_ERRORS_SUMMARY_BY_USER | Provides a summary of errors and warnings generated by clients. | 
| CLIENT_ERRORS_SUMMARY_GLOBAL | Provides a summary of errors and warnings generated by clients. | 
| CLUSTER_CONFIG | Provides details about configuration settings for the entire TiDB cluster. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| CLUSTER_DEADLOCKS | Provides a cluster-level view of the DEADLOCKStable. | 
| CLUSTER_HARDWARE | Provides details on the underlying physical hardware discovered on each TiDB component. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| CLUSTER_INFO | Provides details on the current cluster topology. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| CLUSTER_LOAD | Provides current load information for TiDB servers in the cluster. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| CLUSTER_LOG | Provides a log for the entire TiDB cluster. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| CLUSTER_MEMORY_USAGE | Provides a cluster-level view of the MEMORY_USAGEtable. | 
| CLUSTER_MEMORY_USAGE_OPS_HISTORY | Provides a cluster-level view of the MEMORY_USAGE_OPS_HISTORYtable. | 
| CLUSTER_PROCESSLIST | Provides a cluster-level view of the PROCESSLISTtable. | 
| CLUSTER_SLOW_QUERY | Provides a cluster-level view of the SLOW_QUERYtable. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| CLUSTER_STATEMENTS_SUMMARY | Provides a cluster-level view of the STATEMENTS_SUMMARYtable. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| CLUSTER_STATEMENTS_SUMMARY_HISTORY | Provides a cluster-level view of the STATEMENTS_SUMMARY_HISTORYtable. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| CLUSTER_TIDB_INDEX_USAGE | Provides a cluster-level view of the TIDB_INDEX_USAGEtable. | 
| CLUSTER_TIDB_TRX | Provides a cluster-level view of the TIDB_TRXtable. | 
| CLUSTER_SYSTEMINFO | Provides details about kernel parameter configuration for servers in the cluster. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| DATA_LOCK_WAITS | Provides the lock-waiting information on the TiKV server. | 
| DDL_JOBS | Provides similar output to ADMIN SHOW DDL JOBS | 
| DEADLOCKS | Provides the information of several deadlock errors that have recently occurred. | 
| INSPECTION_RESULT | Triggers internal diagnostics checks. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| INSPECTION_RULES | A list of internal diagnostic checks performed. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| INSPECTION_SUMMARY | A summarized report of important monitoring metrics. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| MEMORY_USAGE | The memory usage of the current TiDB instance. | 
| MEMORY_USAGE_OPS_HISTORY | The history of memory-related operations and the execution basis of the current TiDB instance. | 
| METRICS_SUMMARY | A summary of metrics extracted from Prometheus. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| METRICS_SUMMARY_BY_LABEL | See METRICS_SUMMARYtable. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| METRICS_TABLES | Provides the PromQL definitions for tables in METRICS_SCHEMA. This table is not applicable to TiDB Cloud. | 
| PLACEMENT_POLICIES | Provides information on all placement policies. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| SEQUENCES | The TiDB implementation of sequences is based on MariaDB. | 
| SLOW_QUERY | Provides information on slow queries on the current TiDB server. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| STATEMENTS_SUMMARY | Similar to performance_schema statement summary in MySQL. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| STATEMENTS_SUMMARY_HISTORY | Similar to performance_schema statement summary history in MySQL. This table is not available on TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential clusters. | 
| TABLE_STORAGE_STATS | Provides details about table sizes in storage. | 
| TIDB_HOT_REGIONS | Provides statistics about which regions are hot. | 
| TIDB_HOT_REGIONS_HISTORY | Provides history statistics about which Regions are hot. | 
| TIDB_INDEXES | Provides index information about TiDB tables. | 
| TIDB_INDEX_USAGE | Provides the information of the index usage statistics on the TiDB node. | | 
| TIDB_SERVERS_INFO | Provides a list of TiDB servers (namely, tidb-server component) | 
| TIDB_TRX | Provides the information of the transactions that are being executed on the TiDB node. | 
| TIFLASH_REPLICA | Provides details about TiFlash replicas. | 
| TIKV_REGION_PEERS | Provides details about where regions are stored. | 
| TIKV_REGION_STATUS | Provides statistics about regions. | 
| TIKV_STORE_STATUS | Provides basic information about TiKV servers. |