mysql table information

hi, i was wondering if anyone has some sample code / links which could help me generate HTML forms dynamically from the fields/types/lengths of tables in a mySQL database. ie, if i had a three column table with first (varchar 50), last (varchar 80) & bio (medium text) as the columns, it'd be great if i could use this information about the *table* to build a html form. in otherwords, I could generate an <INPUT> named "first" who's max length was 50, annother called "last" with a maxlength of 80, and a <TEXTAREA> named "bio" for the medium text, etc etc. sorry i can't describe it any better!! i guess programs like phpMyAdmin achieve this, but i'd rather see a small code snippet and LEARN rather than dig through 1000's of lines of phpMyAdmin code :) thanks, justin french