If you terminate statements with \G instead of ;, the MySQL console will print the result set vertically rather than as a horizontal table.

For example, instead of:

+----+--------+--------+
| id | foo_id | bar_id |
+----+--------+--------+
| 1  | 6      | 2      |
+----+--------+--------+

You will have:

*************************** 1. row ***************************
                         id: 186
                     foo_id: 6
                     bar_id: 2

It’s really useful for wide tables, or ones with text columns.

I’m always surprised that the MySQL docs don’t make it easier to find this – it’s one of the better tricks for using the database console.