title: Use SQLALCHEMY engine to get table information / metadata like the update_time / last update time of table
body: <p>I successfully connected Python to my MySQL database with <code>from sqlalchemy import create_engine</code>.</p>
  <p>With this <code>engine</code>I am able to get the data as wanted etc.</p>
  <p>I am using
  <code>table_names = engine.table_names()</code> to get all the table names in the database.</p>
  <p>What I ultimately need is the table information like #of entries, updated_time, etc.</p>
  <p>I could do all of that with selects but I was wondering if there is also a handy function like <code>table_names()</code>to do that?</p>
  <p>Here is the query that I would like to replace by something more handy:</p>
  <pre><code>SELECT UPDATE_TIME
  FROM   information_schema.tables
  WHERE  TABLE_NAME = 'my_table'
  </code></pre>