How to best display in Terminal a MySQL SELECT returning too many fields?

Terminate the query with \G in place of ;. For example:

SELECT * FROM sometable\G

This query displays the rows vertically, like this:

*************************** 1. row ***************************                 Host: localhost                   Db: mydatabase1                 User: myuser1          Select_priv: Y          Insert_priv: Y          Update_priv: Y          ...*************************** 2. row ***************************                 Host: localhost                   Db: mydatabase2                 User: myuser2          Select_priv: Y          Insert_priv: Y          Update_priv: Y          ...

You might also find this useful (non-Windows only):

mysql> pager less -SFXmysql> SELECT * FROM sometable;

This will pipe the outut through the less command line tool which - with these parameters - will give you a tabular output that can be scrolled horizontally and vertically with the cursor keys.

Leave this view by hitting the q key, which will quit the less tool.

Try enabling vertical mode, using \G to execute the query instead of ;:

mysql> SELECT * FROM sometable \G

Your results will be listed in the vertical mode, so each column value will be printed on a separate line. The output will be narrower but obviously much longer.