Select data from "show tables" MySQL query

I think you want SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/tables-table.html

Not that I know of, unless you select from INFORMATION_SCHEMA, as others have mentioned.

However, the SHOW command is pretty flexible, E.g.:

SHOW tables like '%s%'

Have you looked into querying INFORMATION_SCHEMA.Tables? As in

SELECT ic.Table_Name,
    ic.Column_Name,
    ic.data_Type,
    IFNULL(Character_Maximum_Length,'') AS `Max`,
    ic.Numeric_precision as `Precision`,
    ic.numeric_scale as Scale,
    ic.Character_Maximum_Length as VarCharSize,
    ic.is_nullable as Nulls, 
    ic.ordinal_position as OrdinalPos, 
    ic.column_default as ColDefault, 
    ku.ordinal_position as PK,
    kcu.constraint_name,
    kcu.ordinal_position,
    tc.constraint_type
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS ic
    left outer join INFORMATION_SCHEMA.key_column_usage ku
        on ku.table_name = ic.table_name
        and ku.column_name = ic.column_name
    left outer join information_schema.key_column_usage kcu
        on kcu.column_name = ic.column_name
        and kcu.table_name = ic.table_name
    left outer join information_schema.table_constraints tc
        on kcu.constraint_name = tc.constraint_name
order by ic.table_name, ic.ordinal_position;

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

That should be a good start. For more, check INFORMATION_SCHEMA Tables.

I think what you want is MySQL's information_schema view(s): http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/tables-table.html

I don't understand why you want to use SELECT * FROM as part of the statement.

12.5.5.30. SHOW TABLES Syntax