This statement shows the CREATE USER statement that creates the named user. An error occurs if the user does not exist. The statement requires the SELECT privilege for the mysql system database, except to see information for the current user. For the current user, the SELECT privilege for the mysql.user system table is required for display of the password hash in the IDENTIFIED AS clause; otherwise, the hash displays as <secret>.

To name the account, use the format described in Section 6.2.4, “Specifying Account Names”. The host name part of the account name, if omitted, defaults to '%'. It is also possible to specify CURRENT_USER or CURRENT_USER() to refer to the account associated with the current session.

Password hash values displayed in the IDENTIFIED WITH clause of output from SHOW CREATE USER may contain unprintable characters that have adverse effects on terminal displays and in other environments. Enabling the print_identified_with_as_hex system variable (available as of MySQL 8.0.17) causes SHOW CREATE USER to display such hash values as hexadecimal strings rather than as regular string literals. Hash values that do not contain unprintable characters still display as regular string literals, even with this variable enabled.

To display the privileges granted to an account, use the SHOW GRANTS statement. See Section 13.7.6.21, “SHOW GRANTS Syntax”.