A Quick MySQL How-To

1. Connect to mysql server

mysql –u user_id –p

or

mysql –u user_id –p database_name

2. Show available databases

mysql> show databases;

3. Choose a database

mysql> use database_name;

4. Show table names of the current database

mysql> show tables;

5. Show schema definition of a table

mysql> describe table_name;

6. Execute a SQL statement online

mysql> sql_statement;

7. Show all rows of a table

mysql> select * from table_name;

8. Delete a table

mysql> drop table table_name;

9. Execute a SQL script file

mysql> source sql_script_file_name

10. Load a data file to a table. Note columns in the data file must be separated by <tab>

mysql> load data local infile “absolute_path_to_the_data_file” into table table_name;

11. Exit from mysql

mysql> quit