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Home : Articles : MySQL for Absolute Beginners

MySQL for Absolute Beginners

Tutorial by Matt Doyle | Level: Beginner | Published on 25 August 2011

Never used MySQL before? Start here! This tutorial walks youNever used MySQL before? Start here! This tutorial walks youNever used MySQL before? Start here! This tutorial walks youNever used MySQL before? Start here! This tutorial walks you

through the very basics of MySQL and SQL databases. Learnthrough the very basics of MySQL and SQL databases. Learnthrough the very basics of MySQL and SQL databases. Learnthrough the very basics of MySQL and SQL databases. Learn

how to install MySQL, how to issue commands, and how tohow to install MySQL, how to issue commands, and how tohow to install MySQL, how to issue commands, and how tohow to install MySQL, how to issue commands, and how to

create and use databases.create and use databases.create and use databases.create and use databases.

A database is an essential part of most websites and blogs, but setting up

and using a database can be a daunting task for the beginner web

developer.

In this tutorial you'll learn in simple terms how to install, set up, and

use a MySQL database on your computer. This will give you a good

grounding in MySQL that you'll find useful when you start developing

database-driven websites using PHP, Ruby, or your language of choice.

You'll explore the following areas in this tutorial:

The concept of a databaseThe concept of a databaseThe concept of a databaseThe concept of a database, and why databases are useful

The advantages of using MySQLThe advantages of using MySQLThe advantages of using MySQLThe advantages of using MySQL to manage your databases

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MySQL for Absolute Beginners http://www.elated.com/articles/mysql-for-absolute-beginners/

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How to install MySQLHow to install MySQLHow to install MySQLHow to install MySQL on your computer

Using the MySQL Monitor programUsing the MySQL Monitor programUsing the MySQL Monitor programUsing the MySQL Monitor program to send commands to your MySQL

server

How to create a database and tablecreate a database and tablecreate a database and tablecreate a database and table

SQL (Structured Query Language)SQL (Structured Query Language)SQL (Structured Query Language)SQL (Structured Query Language), and what it's used for

Adding recordsAdding recordsAdding recordsAdding records to a table, and retrieving recordsretrieving recordsretrieving recordsretrieving records from a table

Ready to start exploring MySQL? Let's go!

What is a database?

A databasedatabasedatabasedatabase is a structured collection of data. Here are some typical

examples of databases:

An online store databaseAn online store databaseAn online store databaseAn online store database that stores products, customer details and

orders

A database for a web forumA database for a web forumA database for a web forumA database for a web forum that stores members, forums, topics and

posts

A database for a blog systemA database for a blog systemA database for a blog systemA database for a blog system, such as WordPress, that stores users,

blog posts, categories, tags, and comments

The software that manages databases is known as a database managementdatabase managementdatabase managementdatabase management

systemsystemsystemsystem, or DBMSDBMSDBMSDBMS. MySQL is an example of a DBMS. Rather confusingly,

DBMSs are often called databases too. Strictly speaking though, the database

is the data itself, while the DBMS is the software that works with the

database.

There are many different ways to organize data in a database, known as

database models. One of the most popular is the relational model, which is

what MySQL uses (along with PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and

other common systems). Consequently, MySQL is known as a relationalrelationalrelationalrelational

database management systemdatabase management systemdatabase management systemdatabase management system, or RDBMS.

The following diagram shows how a database, the DBMS, and your website's

code interact with each other.


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A database (left) is a collection of related data, managed by a DBMSA database (left) is a collection of related data, managed by a DBMSA database (left) is a collection of related data, managed by a DBMSA database (left) is a collection of related data, managed by a DBMS

such as MySQL (centre). Web scripts (right) communicate with thesuch as MySQL (centre). Web scripts (right) communicate with thesuch as MySQL (centre). Web scripts (right) communicate with thesuch as MySQL (centre). Web scripts (right) communicate with the

DBMS in order to insert, update, delete and retrieve data in theDBMS in order to insert, update, delete and retrieve data in theDBMS in order to insert, update, delete and retrieve data in theDBMS in order to insert, update, delete and retrieve data in the

database.database.database.database.

Why use a database?

If you haven't used a database for your website before, you may have stored

data in text files such as comma-separated value (CSV) files. Here's an

example of a CSV file:

username,password,emailAddress,firstName,lastName

"johnsmith","brickwall53","[email protected]","John","Smith"

"maryjones","garden37","[email protected]","Mary","Jones"

While this technique is fine for simple data structures and small amounts of

data, you quickly run into problems as your site grows. Searching and

updating a very large text file is slow and prone to corruption. What's more,

things start to get messy when you want to link records together, such as

linking a customer record to the orders that the customer has made, and

then linking each order record to the products that are in the order.

Relational databases are designed to take care of all these problems. Here

are some reasons to use a database instead of text files:

They're fast.They're fast.They're fast.They're fast. Databases use indexes, or keys, to find records of data

extremely quickly. For example, once you add a key to an emailAddress

field for member records in a database, you can retrieve a member record

based on the member's email address almost instantly, no matter how

many millions of members you may have in your database.

They're reliable.They're reliable.They're reliable.They're reliable. A DBMS ensures that the data in the database is read

and written reliably, without corrupting the data. Many DBMSs allow you

to use techniques like locking and transactions to ensure that records are

inserted and updated in a predictable way.

They let you link records together.They let you link records together.They let you link records together.They let you link records together. Relational databases let you store

different types of data in groups known as tables. You can then link data

together across tables. For example, you can create a customers table

and an orders table, then link a customer record to all the order records

associated with the customer. The ability to link records across tables lets

you create complex databases with lots of different types of related data.

Why use MySQL?


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You now know why databases are useful, and how they can help you build

complex websites and web apps. But why use MySQL in particular?

There are many great DBMSs out there, including MySQL, PostgreSQL,

SQLite, Oracle, and SQL Server, and all of them can be used for most web

development purposes.

That said, MySQL does have a few advantages for web developers compared

to some other systems:

It's open sourceIt's open sourceIt's open sourceIt's open source, which means it's free for anyone to use and modify.

It's widely available.It's widely available.It's widely available.It's widely available. MySQL can be installed on many different

platforms, and it usually comes standard with most web hosting setups.

It's easy to use.It's easy to use.It's easy to use.It's easy to use. Setting up and working with MySQL databases is

relatively straightforward.

It works well with PHP.It works well with PHP.It works well with PHP.It works well with PHP. As of version 5.3, PHP has a native MySQL driver

that is tightly coupled with the PHP engine, making it a good choice for

PHP coders.

Each DBMS has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example,

PostgreSQL is also open source, is very stable, and has a great community

behind it. SQLite is extremely fast and self-contained (and is also free),

while Oracle and SQL Server have a lot of enterprise-level features that

make it a good choice for large organizations.

Installing MySQL

As I mentioned above, most web hosting accounts come with MySQL

pre-installed. However, if you're developing websites using MySQL, you also

want to have the MySQL server running on your own computer, so that you

can create and test your databases and code without needing to upload files

to your live server all the time.

There are two main components to MySQL:

The MySQL database server, The MySQL database server, The MySQL database server, The MySQL database server, mysqld .... This is the MySQL DBMS that

does the actual work of managing your databases. It runs all the time in

the background, accepting connections from client programs, web scripts

and so on.

Various client and utility programs.Various client and utility programs.Various client and utility programs.Various client and utility programs. These include mysql , the

command-line MySQL Monitor client that you'll use later in the tutorial to

issue commands to the server. You'll also find programs like mysqladmin

for administering MySQL databases, and mysqldump for exporting and

backing up databases.


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In addition, many MySQL installs include documentation, header files for

developers, and the MySQL test suite.

There are many ways to install the MySQL server and associated programs.

Here are three ways you can do it:

Using an official MySQL installation package.Using an official MySQL installation package.Using an official MySQL installation package.Using an official MySQL installation package. There are prebuilt

packages available for many different operating systems, including

Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The basic procedure is to download the

package file, extract it, and run the installer. See the documentation for

the exact steps.

Using a Linux package manager.Using a Linux package manager.Using a Linux package manager.Using a Linux package manager. Many Linux distros come with a

package manager for example, Ubuntu includes the Ubuntu Software

Centre that makes it easy to install MySQL, along with PHP, Apache

and other web development software. See your distro's documentation

for details.

Installing an entire LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package.Installing an entire LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package.Installing an entire LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package.Installing an entire LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package. This is arguably the

easiest way to install a complete MySQL-based development setup on

your computer. These packages contain all you need to start building

database-driven sites, including the Apache web server, MySQL, and

PHP/Perl, hence the acronym "AMP". (The L, W and M stand for Linux,

Windows and Mac OS X respectively.) Since everything's installed in one

go, you'll find that Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl all play nicely together,

with little or no further configuration required.

If you want to get up and running as quickly and easily as possible, I'd

personally recommend downloading and installing XAMPP. This

LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and

Solaris, and automatically installs and sets up Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl

on your computer. What's more, it's easy to uninstall everything later if you

want to.

To install XAMPP:

Visit the XAMPP homepage and click the link for your operating system

(Linux, Windows, Mac OS X or Solaris).

1.

Follow the steps on the page to download, install, start, and test the

XAMPP system on your computer.

2.

Other popular packages similar to XAMPP include WampServer and

EasyPHP for Windows, and MAMP for Mac OS X.


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XAMPP makes it easy to install a complete Apache, MySQL, PHP andXAMPP makes it easy to install a complete Apache, MySQL, PHP andXAMPP makes it easy to install a complete Apache, MySQL, PHP andXAMPP makes it easy to install a complete Apache, MySQL, PHP and

Perl setup on Windows, Mac and Linux.Perl setup on Windows, Mac and Linux.Perl setup on Windows, Mac and Linux.Perl setup on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Issuing commands to MySQL

Assuming you've now installed and started your MySQL server using one of

the above techniques, how do you interact with the server? When you

installed the MySQL server, you also installed mysql , the MySQL Monitor.

This is a command-line client program that you can use to connect to the

server and issue commands.

So let's try firing up the MySQL Monitor and see what it can do. Follow these

two steps:

Open a terminal window:

Windows 7:Windows 7:Windows 7:Windows 7: Click the Windows logo, then choose All Programs >

Accessories > Command Prompt.

Mac OS X:Mac OS X:Mac OS X:Mac OS X: Open a Finder window, then choose Applications > Utilities

> Terminal.

Ubuntu:Ubuntu:Ubuntu:Ubuntu: Choose Applications > Accessories > Terminal, or if you're

using the Unity desktop, click the Ubuntu logo and type terminal .

(More info)

1.

Run the mysql program in the terminal window:

Windows 7:Windows 7:Windows 7:Windows 7: Assuming you installed XAMPP, type cd c:\xampp

\mysql\bin and press Enter , then type mysql -u root and press

Enter .

Mac OS X and Ubuntu:Mac OS X and Ubuntu:Mac OS X and Ubuntu:Mac OS X and Ubuntu: Just type mysql -u root and press Enter .

The -u root parameter tells the MySQL Monitor to connect to the

MySQL server using the root user, which is always available with

2.


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MySQL. By default, MySQL's root user doesn't need a password. This is

OK for a development setup on your computer, but a terrible idea for a

live server! If you're installing MySQL on a live server, make sure you

secure it properly. XAMPP also comes with some security scripts that

can automatically make your XAMPP installation more secure.

Once the MySQL Monitor runs, you'll see something like this in your

terminal window:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MySQL connection id is 3893

Server version: 5.5.8 Source distribution

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> _

The last line, mysql> , is the MySQL prompt. This is where you type your

commands to send to the MySQL server.

Let's try out a couple of commands. Type the following at the mysql>

prompt, then press Enter :

select now();

This tells MySQL to get the current date and time and display it. You'll see

something like this appear:

+---------------------+

| now() |

+---------------------+

| 2011-08-24 11:36:40 |

+---------------------+

1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Now try another command:

show databases;

This command lists all the MySQL databases on your computer. Since you've

just installed MySQL, there will just be a few default databases, similar to the

following:


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+--------------------+

| Database |

+--------------------+

| information_schema |

| mysql |

| performance_schema |

| test |

+--------------------+

4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Now that you know how to send commands to your MySQL server, you're

ready to create your own database and start adding data to it. You'll do this

in the following sections.

When you're finished with the MySQL Monitor, you can quit it by typing

exit at the prompt and pressing Enter .

If you're not comfortable with the command line, there are other ways to

administer MySQL and issue commands. MySQL Workbench is a free

graphical app that can connect to any MySQL server and administer it.

There's also the web-based phpMyAdmin, which is included in many

LAMP/WAMP/MAMP packages.

Creating a database

Let's create a simple database for an imaginary book store. At your mysql>

prompt, type the following and press Enter :

create database bookstore;

If all goes well, you'll see something like this:

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

MySQL has now created your database. You can check this by typing show

databases again:

mysql> show databases;


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+--------------------+

| Database |

+--------------------+


| bookstore |

| mysql |


| test |

+--------------------+


Congratulations you've just created your first MySQL database!

Some SQL basics

All of the commands you've issued so far select now() , show

databases , and create database bookstore are SQL statementsSQL statementsSQL statementsSQL statements.

SQL, or Structured Query Language, is the language you use to

communicate with most DBMSs, including MySQL. Using SQL, you can create

and delete databases and tables; insert new data into tables; update data;

delete data; and retrieve data.

Statements that retrieve data from a database are also commonly called

queriesqueriesqueriesqueries, hence the name "Structured Query Language".

You'll use SQL in the rest of this tutorial as you create a table in your new

database, add a record, and retrieve a record.

Creating a simple table

As with all relational databases, MySQL organizes its data in tables. A tabletabletabletable

holds one or more records of related data, in a similar way to an associative

array in JavaScript or PHP. A table consists of:


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One or more fields.One or more fields.One or more fields.One or more fields. Each field holds a specific type of information. For

example, in a books table, you might have one field for the book title,

another field for the book's author, and so on.

One or more records.One or more records.One or more records.One or more records. A record is a set of field values that stores all the

information about a particular entity in the table. In a books table, a

record would store all the field values for a specific book.

The easiest way to understand fields and records is to see how they look

when laid out in a table. Let's set up a books table to hold books in our

book store:

id title author price

1 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 12.99

2 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 8.99

3 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 7.99

The top row of the table holds the field names: id , title , author , and

price . The next three rows are the three book records in our table. Each

record has its own field values: for example, the first record's title field

contains "The Grapes of Wrath", while the second record's title field

contains "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

Since a single column in a table holds all the different record values for a

specific field, fields are also commonly known as columnscolumnscolumnscolumns. Similarly, the

records in a table are commonly called rowsrowsrowsrows.

So how do you actually create this table in MySQL? To do this, you need to

create a schemaschemaschemaschema for the table. This is a text file containing a series of SQL

statements that create the table and define the table's fields.

Here's the schema save it as a file called books.sql somewhere on your

computer:

USE bookstore;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS books;

CREATE TABLE books

(

id int unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, # Unique ID for the record

title varchar(255) NOT NULL, # Full title of the book

author varchar(255) NOT NULL, # The author of the book

price decimal(10,2) NOT NULL, # The price of the book

PRIMARY KEY (id)

);


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Let's take a look at the SQL statements in this file and see what they do:

USE bookstore

This tells MySQL to switch to the bookstore database that you created

earlier. MySQL will then carry out all further operations on this database.

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS books

This deletes any previous books table from the database, since you can't

redefine a table if it already exists.

Be careful when using DROP TABLE . When you delete a table like this,

any data in the table is gone forever!

CREATE TABLE books ( ... )

This statement creates a new table called books . The stuff in between

the parentheses defines the table's fields and its primary key, as we'll see

next.

id int unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment

The first field we define is id . This is a special type of field that assigns

a unique numeric ID to each book record in the table. Most of the time,

you'll want your table to have a unique field of some sort, so that you can

easily identify a particular record. We give the field an int unsigned

type, which can hold large, positive integer numbers. We also add the

auto_increment attribute to the field now, whenever we add a new

record to the table, MySQL will automatically assign a new, unique value

to the record's id field (starting with 1).

The NOT NULL constraint prevents the field containing NULL values. In

MySQL, NULL is a special type of value that can be useful in some

situations. However, it can also be quite confusing for beginners, so

we won't use them in this tutorial.

title varchar(255) NOT NULL

Next we define the field to hold each book's title. We give it a

varchar(255) type, which means it can hold a text string up to 255

characters long.

author varchar(255) NOT NULL

The next field is the book's author. As with the title field, we give it

the varchar(255) type.

price decimal(10,2) NOT NULL

The last field is the book's price. We give this field a decimal(10,2)

type, which means that the field can hold a 10-digit decimal number,


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with 2 of the digits sitting to the right of the decimal point.

PRIMARY KEY (id)

Finally, we create a primary key based on the table's id field. A primaryprimaryprimaryprimary

keykeykeykey uniquely identifies records in the table; a table can have only one

primary key. MySQL also creates an index using the primary key this

lets you retrieve a book record extremely quickly by referencing its id

field, even if the table contains millions of rows.

Now that we've created our schema statements, we need to run them

through MySQL to create the actual table. To do this, switch back to the

MySQL Monitor and type the following command at the mysql> prompt:

source /path/to/books.sql

...where /path/to/books.sql is the full path to your books.sql file. (If

you ran mysql in the same folder as your books.sql file then you can just

type source books.sql .)

You should see the following output in MySQL Monitor:

Database changed

Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.10 sec)

To check that your books table was created, you can type show tables :

mysql> show tables;

+---------------------+

| Tables_in_bookstore |

+---------------------+

| books |

+---------------------+


You can even inspect the table schema to make sure it's correct. To do this,

use the explain command, like this:

mysql> explain books;

+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |

+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |


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| title | varchar(255) | NO | | NULL | |

| author | varchar(255) | NO | | NULL | |

| price | decimal(10,2) | NO | | NULL | |

+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+


Adding records

You've now created a database called bookstore , and added a books table

to it. Let's try adding a record to the books table.

To add a record to a table, you use the SQL INSERT statement, passing in

the record's field names and values. Type the following line in the MySQL

Monitor to insert a book record into your table:

INSERT INTO books ( title, author, price )

VALUES ( "The Grapes of Wrath", "John Steinbeck", 12.99 );

You should see the following output, indicating that MySQL has added the

row to the table:

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.06 sec)

As you can see, we've used an INSERT statement to add the book "The

Grapes of Wrath" to the table. We specified INTO books to tell MySQL which

table to insert the record into, then listed the field names that we want to

supply values for in parentheses, followed by the keyword VALUES , followed

by the field values in the same order as the field names, again in

parentheses.

Notice that we haven't specified a value for the id field. Since it's an

auto_increment field, MySQL generates the field value automatically.

Let's add another couple of books to the table:

mysql> INSERT INTO books ( title, author, price )

VALUES ( "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "George Orwell", 8.99 ),

( "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", "Haruki Murakami", 7.99 );

Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Records: 2 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

As you can see, you can insert multiple rows at once by supplying multiple

sets of field values, enclosed in parentheses and separated by commas.


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Retrieving records

Now that we've added some records to the table, how can we retrieve them?

This is where SQL queries come in. The SQL SELECT statement lets you

retrieve one or more records from a table or even multiple tables at once

based on criteria that you supply. The basic syntax is:

SELECT fieldNames FROM tableName [WHERE criteria]

There's a lot more to the SELECT statement than this, but we'll keep

things simple in this tutorial!

Let's try a basic SELECT query on our books table using the MySQL

Monitor:

mysql> SELECT * FROM books;

+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+

| id | title | author | price |

+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+

| 1 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 12.99 |

| 2 | Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | 8.99 |

| 3 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami | 7.99 |

+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+


This SELECT query retrieves all fields ( * ) from the books table. Since we

haven't supplied any additional criteria, the query retrieves all the records in

the table, and displays the field values in the MySQL monitor.

As you can see, MySQL has auto-generated the values for the id field,


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beginning with 1.

What if we want to retrieve just one record from the table, such as the book

"Nineteen Eighty-Four"? To narrow down the selection, we can add a WHERE

clause, like this:

mysql> SELECT * FROM books WHERE id = 2;

+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


As well as selecting by the id field, we can select by any other field we like:

mysql> SELECT * FROM books WHERE title = "Nineteen Eighty-Four";

+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


+----+----------------------+---------------+-------+


We can also use other operators, such as < (less than), > (greater than),

and the boolean AND operator, to retrieve a range of records:

mysql> SELECT * FROM books WHERE price < 10 AND price > 5;

+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+


+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+


| 3 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami | 7.99 |

+----+----------------------------+-----------------+-------+


Finally, instead of retrieving all fields using * , we can specify just the field

or fields we want to retrieve. Here's an example:

mysql> SELECT title, author FROM books;

+----------------------------+-----------------+


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| title | author |

+----------------------------+-----------------+

| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |

| Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell |

| The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami |

+----------------------------+-----------------+


As you can see, SELECT queries make it easy to retrieve just the records and

fields you want from your table.

Summary

This tutorial has introduced you to databases in general, and MySQL in

particular. You've covered the following topics:

The concept of a databaseThe concept of a databaseThe concept of a databaseThe concept of a database, which lets you easily store large amounts of

structured data for your websites and web apps.

Why databases are a good ideaWhy databases are a good ideaWhy databases are a good ideaWhy databases are a good idea compared to, say, flat text files of data.

Some reasons to choose MySQLSome reasons to choose MySQLSome reasons to choose MySQLSome reasons to choose MySQL for your DBMS.

How to install MySQLHow to install MySQLHow to install MySQLHow to install MySQL in three different ways: installing the official

packages, using a Linux package manager, and installing a

LAMP/WAMP/MAMP package such as XAMPP.

How to use the MySQL Monitor programHow to use the MySQL Monitor programHow to use the MySQL Monitor programHow to use the MySQL Monitor program, mysql , to connect to your

MySQL server and issue commands.

How to create databasesHow to create databasesHow to create databasesHow to create databases with the CREATE DATABASE command.

How to create tablesHow to create tablesHow to create tablesHow to create tables with the CREATE TABLE command.

A few MySQL data typesA few MySQL data typesA few MySQL data typesA few MySQL data types, including int , varchar , and decimal .

The concepts of NULL values values values values, auto-increment fieldsauto-increment fieldsauto-increment fieldsauto-increment fields, unique fieldsunique fieldsunique fieldsunique fields,

and primary keysprimary keysprimary keysprimary keys.

Adding recordsAdding recordsAdding recordsAdding records to a table using the INSERT statement, and

Retrieving recordsRetrieving recordsRetrieving recordsRetrieving records from a table with the SELECT statement.

MySQL databases are a big topic, and there are lot more important areas to

explore, including updating and deleting records; table relationships;

normalization; joining tables; and grouping results. However, I hope you've

found this article useful as a general introduction to MySQL.

If you want to learn more, the MySQL manual has a decent tutorial section,

including more details on using the MySQL Monitor, creating databases, and

adding tables and data. It also includes some common queries that you can

take and adapt for your own uses. You might also like to read my article


16 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

94

Tweet

LinkHTML:

fozz52fozz52fozz52fozz52 04-Feb-14 17:12

Hi Chris

Thanks for helping...this is what I get

+--------------------+

| Database |

+--------------------+


| cdcol

| mysql |


| phpmyadmin

| test |

| users |

| webauth |

+--------------------+


Cheers

Fozz52

chrishirstchrishirstchrishirstchrishirst 05-Feb-14 19:38

Ok so your user database has been created

The db.opt file is the "characteristics" of the database and contains

information about the character set, structure, collation etc. MySQL does

not work like Access or Excel where you have a database 'file' per se, the

folder is the data location and the data is then held in the 'table' datafiles.

When you start creating tables the data files will be created in the dbname

folder.

tablename.MYD are the datafiles

tablename.MYI are the table index(es)

tablename.frm are the format files for the tables.

These will not exist until you create tables and add data to them. You only

need to be concerned with the file structure unless you have to do a

manual recovery, hopefully that will not happen,

A .sql file is a text file that contains a set of command lines to rebuild the

database, table structures and data, that is used for exporting, importing

or taking backups of the database.


18 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

Does that help?

[Edited by chrishirst on 05-Feb-14 19:39]


Hi Chris

Does it help... well Yes and No I still can't create the table!

I'm still getting the same reaction when I put the following into the mysql

monitor so how do I create my table in the users database if the users.sql

text file was saved in xammp/mysql/

I've put into the command line...

/xammp/mysql/users.sql

but it does nothing and just goes to the next line showing the prompt ->

what am I doing wrong?


To tell mysql to run the command you have to terminate the line with a

semicolon ';' this is because you can type in several lines of a query

seperated by the key but the mysql server will not parse the input

until it gets ; as an input line.

Or if you prefer a Windows GUI as MySQL CLI takes a bit of getting used to

download and install HeidiSQL ( http://www.heidisql.com/ )

You can see the CLI command assemble in the "command" pane and learn

how it works.

to load a .sql command script at the mysql comman prompt

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysql-batch-commands.html


Hi Chris

Ok sorry about that should have noticed.... however.... after putting the

following into the command line


19 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

/xammp/mysql/users.sql;

I get this error message...

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the

manual that corresponds to your MYSQL server version for the right syntax

to use near '/xammp/mysql/users.sql' at line 1

I'm really confused now!


.sql files are not like batch (.bat) or command (.cmd) files in Windows you

have to tell the mysql daemon what to do with it.

the command line to import a text file is

mysql db < file.ext

Which is equivalent to

use db_name

source file.ext;

The mysql command is to start the mysql CLI daemon so it can accept

instructions

The USE command says "Open 'db_name' and set it as the current working

database.

The SOURCE command says Open the named file and execute the

commands in the sequence they appear.

[Edited by chrishirst on 07-Feb-14 09:12]



20 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

Hi Chris

Not sure whats going on here but perhaps this was the problem before

and hadn't realised.

I did a show databases; command and got the following;

+--------------------+

| Database |

+--------------------+


| test |

+--------------------+


Where did the other databases go including the users.sql !

So decided to restart my laptop and create a new database. This time I

followed the instructions and created a database called bookstore.sql but

then got this error message !

=====================================================================

ERROR 1044 (42000) Access denied for user @localhost to database

bookstore

=====================================================================

Puzzled as to whats happening but Im sure you will be able to help...


You are logged as a user without sufficient privileges to see them or

change them.


Hi Chris

Without wishing to be flippant you're stating the obvious... I realise what

the error message is saying but as I'm the only user of the computer but

nothing has changed since I started working through this tutorial a few

days ago and created the original user.sql database.

So have you any idea as to why it's suddenly telling me I don't have

permission and if you do could you set out the steps I should take ?


For mysql in a "WAMP" environment it does not matter how many users are

on the machine, or who is logged in to Windows. It is who is logged in at

the mysql command window that matters.

MySQL has an entirely seperate user list to the Windows user list, and uses

a UNIX privilege/permissions hierarchy NOT the comparatively weak


21 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

Windows permissions hierarchy.

When you installed MySQL it will have asked you for a root user password,

it is THAT user / password combination that you need to login to the

command window with, otherwise you are simply a "user" with no

privileges beyond USEUSEUSEUSE to open a database and running SELECT queries

against that DB.

Once you are logged in to a 'root' command window (called a 'shell' in UNIX

parlance) you will then have full privileges to see, read, change and 'drop'

(delete) databases and tables, create users and set privileges to specific

databases or actions.

paulniemanpaulniemanpaulniemanpaulnieman 09-Mar-14 04:31

First of all a big thank you for this very helpful guide which understands

what it means to begin. It gives clear conceptual ideas without swamping

(this beginner) with too much detail.

Now to my first question.

Having successfully installed XAMPP.1.8.3-3 on a mac I have it all up and

running perfectly.

I used terminal to set passwords for xampp, mySQL/phpAmin, mySQL root

and FTP "daemon".

Now I tried mysql -u root and I get "command not found"

Is this because I'm not using terminal as a root user?

If so how do I log in as a root user.

Thanks - Paul


Ah now I have it! With apologies I didn't read enough of the previous

conversations and I realise my question has been answered with:-

/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/mysql

to accommodate the current Mac OS

Thanks and let me save you a reply.


Working through commands I have success until I try to create a data base.

Then I get (see below) Working on an iMac with mysql on an external drive

but all appearing to work normally.


22 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

mysql> select now();

mysql> show databases;

mysql> create database bookstore;

ERROR 1044 (42000): Access denied for user ''@'localhost' to database

'bookstore'

mysql>

chrishirstchrishirstchrishirstchrishirst 10-Mar-14 13:33

start the mysql CLI with a user that has 'create' pivileges

e.g;

mysql --user=root --password=password


BrilliantBrilliantBrilliantBrilliant thank you. Paul

Katire JnaniKatire JnaniKatire JnaniKatire Jnani 07-Aug-14 12:14

That was real beginner stuff. It was great. Now the problem is, how to go

further

Jnani

chrishirstchrishirstchrishirstchrishirst 08-Aug-14 04:23

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/

yibsyibsyibsyibs 08-Sep-14 18:45

Hi.. Im at the very beginning. I installed XAMPP and have the mySQL


23 of 24 05-07-2015 14:35

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Database Server running. I'm using a MAC and when I go into the Terminal

and enter "mysql -u root" and hit ENTER, I get mysql: command not found

Is there something I'm missing?

chrishirstchrishirstchrishirstchrishirst 09-Sep-14 06:12

Quite probably the path to your mysql executable is not in the PATH

environment variable.

use the full path to the executable IN the command line or add the location

to $PATH

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