System Table definitions for MyISAM

[Jan Theodore Galkowski]

Hi,

Akin to other RDBMS, I imagine MySQL has System Tables which describe various parts of their implementation, such as tables which list all the columns in the current database. My first question, then, is whether or not this expectation is true. I found online documentation describing these for MaxDB but their absence in DuBois's Second Edition reference makes me want to check it.

Second, assuming they exist, is there a table which indicates for a column whether or not it is an AUTO_INCREMENT?

I'm writing a custom data loader and don't want to overwrite AUTO_INCREMENT values with old ones. Instead, I am writing code to insert a new row for the new values, grab its new value through PHP's mysql_insert_id, and pair that new value with the old in an auxiliary table. Then, during the load, when references to the old AUTO_INCREMENT are made, I'm intending to substitute the new one.

I'd prefer not to have a store which maps tablenames to AUTO_INCREMENT column names if I can help it, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to learn a bit more about what's under MySQL's petticoats.

That's a failback, of course.

Thanks.