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MySQL Tutorial

Tutorialspoint.com
MySQL is the most popular Open Source Relational SQL database management
system.

MySQL is one of the best RDBMS being used for developing web based software
applications. This tutorial gives an initial push to start you with MySQL. For more
detail kindly check tutorialspoint.com/mysql

What is Database?

A database is a separate application that stores a collection of data. Each database has one or
more distinct APIs for creating, accessing, managing, searching, and replicating the data it
holds.

Other kinds of data stores can be used, such as files on the file system or large hash tables in
memory but data fetching and writing would not be so fast and easy with those type of systems.

So now a days we use relational database management systems (RDBMS) to store and manager
huge volume of data. This is called relational database because all the data is stored into
different tables and relations are established using primary keys or other keys known as foreign
keys.

A Relational DataBase Management System (RDBMS) is a software that:

 Enables you to implement a database with tables, columns, and indexes.

 Guarantees the Referential Integrity between rows of various tables.
 Updates the indexes automatically.
 Interprets an SQL query and combines information from various tables.

RDBMS Terminology:

Before we proceed to explain MySQL database system, lets revise few definitions related to
database.

 Database: A database is a collection of tables, with related data.

 Table: A table is a matrix with data. A table in a database looks like a simple
spreadsheet.
 Column: One column (data element) contains data of one and the same kind, for
example the column postcode.
 Row: A row (= tuple, entry or record) is a group of related data, for example the data
of one subscription.
 Redundancy: Storing data twice, redundantly to make the system faster.
 Primary Key: A primary key is unique. A key value can not occur twice in one table.
With a key you can find at most one row.
 Foreign Key: A foreign key is the linking pin between two tables.
 Compound Key: A compound key (composite key) is a key that consists of multiple
columns, because one column is not sufficiently unique.
 Index: An index in a database resembles an index at the back of a book.
 Referential Integrity: Referential Integrity makes sure that a foreign key value
always points to an existing row.

MySQL Database:

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MySQL is a fast, easy-to-use RDBMS used being used for many small and big businesses.
MySQL is developed, marketed, and supported by MySQL AB, which is a Swedish company.
MySQL is becoming so popular because of many good reasons.

 MySQL is released under an open-source license. So you have nothing to pay to use it.
 MySQL is a very powerful program in its own right. It handles a large subset of the
functionality of the most expensive and powerful database packages.
 MySQL uses a standard form of the well-known SQL data language.
 MySQL works on many operating systems and with many languages including PHP,
PERL, C, C++, JAVA etc.
 MySQL works very quickly and works well even with large data sets.
 MySQL is very friendly to PHP, the most appreciated language for web development.
 MySQL supports large databases, up to 50 million rows or more in a table. The default
file size limit for a table is 4GB, but you can increase this (if your operating system can
handle it) to a theoretical limit of 8 million terabytes (TB).
 MySQL is customizable. The open source GPL license allows programmers to modify the
MySQL software to fit their own specific environments.

Before You Begin:

Before you begin this tutorial you should have a basic knowledge of the information covered in
our PHP and HTML tutorials.

This tutorial focuses heavily on using MySQL in a PHP environment. Many examples given in this
tutorial will be useful for PHP Programmers.

We recommend you check our PHP Tutorial for your reference.

Downloading MySQL:

All downloads for MySQL are located at MySQL Downloads. Pick the version number for MySQL
Community Server you want and, as exactly as possible, the platform you want.

Installing MySQL on Linux/Unix

The recommended way to install MySQL on a Linux system is via RPM. MySQL AB makes the
following RPMs available for download on its web site:

 MySQL - The MySQL database server, which manages databases and tables, controls
user access, and processes SQL queries.
 MySQL-client - MySQL client programs, which makes it possible to connect to, and
interact with, the server.
 MySQL-devel - Libraries and header files that come in handy when compiling other
programs that use MySQL.
 MySQL-shared - Shared libraries for the MySQL client
 MySQL-bench - Benchmark and performance testing tools for the MySQL database
server.

The MySQL RPMs listed here are all built on a SuSE Linux system, but they.ll usually work on
other Linux variants with no difficulty.

Now follow the following steps to proceed for installation:

1. Login to the system using root user.

2. Switch to the directory containing the RPMs:
3. Install the MySQL database server by executing the following command. Remember to
replace the filename in italics with the file name of your RPM.

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[root@host]# rpm -i MySQL-5.0.9-0.i386.rpm

Above command takes care of installing MySQL server, creating a user of MySQL,
creating necessary configuration and starting MySQL server automatically.

You can find all the MySQL related binaries in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin. All the tables and
databases will be created in /var/lib/mysql directory.

4. This is optional but recommended step to install the remaining RPMs in the same
manner:

[root@host]# rpm -i MySQL-client-5.0.9-0.i386.rpm

[root@host]# rpm -i MySQL-devel-5.0.9-0.i386.rpm
[root@host]# rpm -i MySQL-shared-5.0.9-0.i386.rpm
[root@host]# rpm -i MySQL-bench-5.0.9-0.i386.rpm

Installing MySQL on Windows:

Default installation on any version of Windows is now much easier than it used to be, as MySQL
now comes neatly packaged with an installer. Simply download the installer package, unzip it
anywhere, and run setup.exe.

Default installer setup.exe will walk you through the trivial process and by default will install
everything under C:\mysql.

Test the server by firing it up from the command prompt the first time. Go to the location of the
mysqld server, which is probably C:\mysql\bin, and type:

mysqld.exe --console

NOTE: If you are on NT then you will have to use mysqld-nt.exe instead of mysqld.exe

If all went well, you will see some messages about startup and InnoDB. If not, you may have a
permissions issue. Make sure that the directory that holds your data is accessible to whatever
user (probably mysql) the database processes run under.

MySQL will not add itself to the start menu, and there is no particularly nice GUI way to stop the
server either. Therefore, if you tend to start the server by double clicking the mysqld
executable, you should remember to halt the process by hand by using mysqladmin, Task List,
Task Manager, or other Windows-specific means.

Verifying MySQL Installation:

After MySQL has been successfully installed, the base tables have been initialized, and the
server has been started, you can verify that all is working as it should via some simple tests.

Use the mysqladmin Utility to Obtain Server Status:

Use mysqladmin binary to check server version. This binary would be available in /usr/bin on
linux and in C:\mysql\bin on windows.

[root@host]# mysqladmin --version

It will produce following result on Linux. It may vary depending on your installation:

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mysqladmin Ver 8.23 Distrib 5.0.9-0, for redhat-linux-gnu on i386

If you do not get such message then there may be some problem in your installation and you
would need some help to fix it.

Execute simple SQL commands using MySQL Client:

You can connect to your MySQL server by using MySQL client using mysql command. At this
momemnt you do not need to give any password as by default it will be set to blank.

So just use following command

[root@host]# mysql

It should be rewarded with a mysql> prompt. Now you are connected to the MySQL server and
you can execute all the SQL command at mysql> prompt as follows.

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;

+----------+
| Database |
+----------+
| mysql |
| test |
+----------+
2 rows in set (0.13 sec)

Post-installation Steps:

MySQL ships with a blank password for the root MySQL user. As soon as you have successfully
installed the database and client you need to set a root password as follows:

[root@host]# mysqladmin -u root password "new_password";

Now to make a connection to your MySQL server you would have to use following command:

[root@host]# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:*******

Unix users will also want to put your MySQL directory in your PATH, so you won't have to keep
typing out the full path every time you want to use the command-line client. For bash, it would
be something like:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

Running MySQL at boot time:

If you want to run MySQL server at boot time then make sure you have following entry in
/etc/rc.local file

/etc/init.d/mysqld start

Also,you should have mysqld binary in /etc/init.d/ directory.

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Running and Shutting down MySQL Server:

First check if your MySQL server is running or not. You can use following command to check
this:

ps -ef | grep mysqld

If your MySql is running then you will see mysqld process listed out in your result. If server is
not running then you can start it by using following command:

root@hoat# cd /usr/bin
./safe_mysqld &

Now if you want to shutdown an already running MySQL server then you can do it by using
following command:

root@hoat# cd /usr/bin
./mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown
Enter password: ******

Setting Up a MySQL User Accounts:

For adding a new user to MySQL you just need to add a new entry to user table in database
mysql.

Below is an example of adding new user guest with SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE privileges
with the password guest123 the SQL query is :

root@host# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:*******
mysql> use mysql;
Database changed

mysql> INSERT INTO user

(host, user, password,
select_priv, insert_priv, update_priv)
VALUES ('localhost', 'guest',
PASSWORD('guest123'), 'Y', 'Y', 'Y');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT host, user, password FROM user WHERE user = 'guest';
+-----------+---------+------------------+
| host | user | password |
+-----------+---------+------------------+
| localhost | guest | 6f8c114b58f2ce9e |
+-----------+---------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

When adding a new user remember to encrypt the new password using PASSWORD() function
provided by MySQL. As you can see in the above example the password mypass is encrypted to
6f8c114b58f2ce9e.

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Notice the FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement. This tells the server to reload the grant tables. If you
don't use it then you won't be able to connect to mysql using the new user account at least until
the server is rebooted.

You can also specify other privileges to a new user by setting the values of following columns in
user table to 'Y' when executing the INSERT query or you can update them later using UPDATE
query.

 Select_priv
 Insert_priv
 Update_priv
 Delete_priv
 Create_priv
 Drop_priv
 Reload_priv
 Shutdown_priv
 Process_priv
 File_priv
 Grant_priv
 References_priv
 Index_priv
 Alter_priv

Another way of adding user account is by using GRANT SQL command; Following example will
ada user zara with password zara123 for a particular database called TUTORIALS.

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use mysql;
Database changed

mysql> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP

-> ON TUTORIALS.*
-> TO 'zara'@'localhost'
-> IDENTIFIED BY 'zara123';

This will also create an entry in mysql database table called user.

NOTE: MySQL does not terminate a command until you give a semi colon (;) at the end of SQL
command.

The /etc/my.cnf File Configuration:

Most of the cases you should not touch this file. By default it will have following entries:

[mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

[mysql.server]
user=mysql
basedir=/var/lib

[safe_mysqld]
err-log=/var/log/mysqld.log
pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

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Here you can specify a different directory for error log, otherwise you should not change any
entry in this table.

Administrative MySQL Command:

Here is the list of important MySQL command which you will use time to time to work with
MySQL database:

 USE Databasename : This will be used to select a particular database in MySQL

workarea.
 SHOW DATABASES: Lists the databases that are accessible by the MySQL DBMS.
 SHOW TABLES: Shows the tables in the database once a database has been selected
with the use command.
 SHOW COLUMNS FROM tablename: Shows the attributes, types of attributes, key
information, whether NULL is permitted, defaults, and other information for a table.
 SHOW INDEX FROM tablename: Presents the details of all indexes on the table,
including the PRIMARY KEY.
 SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE tablename\G: Reports details of the MySQL DBMS
performance and statistics.

MySQL PHP Syntax

MySQL works very well in combination of various programming languages like PERL, C, C++,
JAVA and PHP. Out of these languages, PHP is the most popular one because of its web
application development capabilities.

This tutorial focuses heavily on using MySQL in a PHP environment. If you are interested in
MySQL with PERL then you can look into PERL and MySQL Tutorial.

PHP provides various functions to access MySQL database and to manipulate data records inside
MySQL database. You would require to call PHP functions in the same way you call any other
PHP function.

The PHP functions for use with MySQL have the following general format:

mysql_function(value,value,...);

The second part of the function name is specific to the function, usually a word that describes
what the function does. The following are two of the functions which we will use in our tutorial

mysqli_connect($connect);
mysqli_query($connect,"SQL statement");

Following example shows a generic sysntax of PHP to call any MySQL function.

<html>
<head>
<title>PHP with MySQL</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$retval = mysql_function(value, [value,...]);
if( !$retval )
{
die ( "Error: a related error message" );

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}
// Otherwise MySQL or PHP Statements
?>
</body>
</html>

Starting from next chapter we will see all the important MySQL functionality along with PHP.

MySQL Database Connection

You can establish MySQL database using mysql binary at command prompt.

Example:

Here is a simple example to connect to MySQL server from command prompt:

[root@host]# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:******

This will give you mysql> command prompt where you will be able to execute any SQL
command. Following is the result of above command:

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

Your MySQL connection id is 2854760 to server version: 5.0.9

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

In above example we have used root as a user but you can use any other user. Any user will be
able to perform all the SQL operation which are allowed to that user.

You can disconnect from MySQL database any time using exit command at mysql> prompt.

mysql> exit
Bye

MySQL Connection using PHP Script:

PHP provides mysql_connect() function to open a database connection. This function takes
five parameters and returns a MySQL link identifier on success, or FALSE on failure.

Syntax:
connection mysql_connect(server,user,passwd,new_link,client_flag);

Parameter Description

server Optional - The host name running database server. If not specified then
default value is localhost:3036.

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user Optional - The username accessing the database. If not specified then
default is the name of the user that owns the server process.

passwd Optional - The password of the user accessing the database. If not specified
then default is an empty password.

new_link Optional - If a second call is made to mysql_connect() with the same

arguments, no new connection will be established; instead, the identifier of
the already opened connection will be returned.

client_flags Optional - A combination of the following constants:

 MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL - Use SSL encryption

 MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS - Use compression protocol
 MYSQL_CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE - Allow space after function names
 MYSQL_CLIENT_INTERACTIVE - Allow interactive timeout seconds of
inactivity before closing the connection

You can disconnect from MySQL database anytime using another PHP function mysql_close().
This function takes a single parameter which is a connection returned by mysql_connect()
function.

Syntax:
bool mysql_close ( resource $link_identifier );

If a resource is not specified then last opened database is closed. This function returns true if it
closes connection successfully otherwise it returns false.

Example:

Try out following example to connect to a MySQL server:

<html>
<head>
<title>Connecting MySQL Server</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'guest';
$dbpass = 'guest123';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

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Create MySQL Database

You would need special privilege to create or to delete a MySQL database. So assuming you
have access to root user, you can create any database using mysql mysqladmin binary.

Example:

Here is a simple example to create database called TUTORIALS:

[root@host]# mysqladmin -u root -p create TUTORIALS

Enter password:******

This will create a MySQL database TUTORIALS.

Create Database using PHP Script:

PHP uses mysql_query function to create or delete a MySQL database. This function takes two
parameters and returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Syntax:
bool mysql_query( sql, connection );

Parameter Description

sql Required - SQL query to create or delete a MySQL database

connection Optional - if not specified then last opened connection by mysql_connect will
be used.

Example:

Try out following example to create a database:

<html>
<head>
<title>Creating MySQL Database</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'rootpassword';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully<br />';
$sql = 'CREATE DATABASE TUTORIALS';
$retval = mysql_query( $sql, $conn );

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if(! $retval )
{
die('Could not create database: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo "Database TUTORIALS created successfully\n";
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

Drop MySQL Database

You would need special privilege to create or to delete a MySQL database. So assuming you
have access to root user, you can create any database using mysql mysqladmin binary.

Be careful while deleting any database because it will lose your all the data available in your
database.

Here is an example to delete a database created in previous chapter:

[root@host]# mysqladmin -u root -p drop TUTORIALS

Enter password:******

This will give you a warning and it will confirm if you really want to delete this database or not.

Dropping the database is potentially a very bad thing to do.

Any data stored in the database will be destroyed.

Do you really want to drop the 'TUTORIALS' database [y/N] y

Database "TUTORIALS" dropped

Drop Database using PHP Script:

PHP uses mysql_query function to create or delete a MySQL database. This function takes two
parameters and returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Syntax:
bool mysql_query( sql, connection );

Parameter Description

sql Required - SQL query to create or delete a MySQL database

connection Optional - if not specified then last opened connection by mysql_connect will
be used.

Example:

Try out following example to delete a database:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Deleting MySQL Database</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'rootpassword';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully<br />';
$sql = 'DROP DATABASE TUTORIALS';
$retval = mysql_query( $sql, $conn );
if(! $retval )
{
die('Could not delete database: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo "Database TUTORIALS deleted successfully\n";
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

WARNING: While deleting a database using PHP script, it does not prompt you for any
confirmation. So be careful while deleting a MySQL database.

Selecting MySQL Database

Once you get connection with MySQL server,it is required to select a particular database to work
with. This is because there may be more than one database available with MySQL Server.

Selecting MySQL Database from Command Prompt:

This is very simple to select a particular database from mysql> prompt. You can use SQL
command use to select a particular database.

Example:

Here is an example to select database called TUTORIALS:

[root@host]# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql>

Now you have selected TUTORIALS database and all the subsequent operations will be
performed on TUTORIALS database.

NOTE: all the database name, table names, table fields name are case sensitive. So you would
have to use prpoer names while giving any SQL command.

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Selecting MySQL Database Using PHP Script:

PHP provides function mysql_select_db to select a database.It returns TRUE on success or

FALSE on failure.

Syntax:
bool mysql_select_db( db_name, connection );

Parameter Description

db_name Required - MySQL Database name to be selected

connection Optional - if not specified then last opened connection by mysql_connect will
be used.

Example:

Here is the example showing you how to select a database.

<html>
<head>
<title>Selecting MySQL Database</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'guest';
$dbpass = 'guest123';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_select_db( 'TUTORIALS' );
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

MySQL Data Types

Properly defining the fields in a table is important to the overall optimization of your database.
You should use only the type and size of field you really need to use; don't define a field as 10
characters wide if you know you're only going to use 2 characters. These types of fields (or
columns) are also referred to as data types, after the type of data you will be storing in those
fields.

MySQL uses many different data types, broken into three categories: numeric, date and time,
and string types.

Numeric Data Types:

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MySQL uses all the standard ANSI SQL numeric data types, so if you're coming to MySQL from a
different database system, these definitions will look familiar to you. The following list shows the
common numeric data types and their descriptions.

 INT - A normal-sized integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -2147483648 to 2147483647. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0
to 4294967295. You can specify a width of up to 11 digits.
 TINYINT - A very small integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -128 to 127. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0 to 255. You can
specify a width of up to 4 digits.
 SMALLINT - A small integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -32768 to 32767. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0 to 65535.
You can specify a width of up to 5 digits.
 MEDIUMINT - A medium-sized integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the
allowable range is from -8388608 to 8388607. If unsigned, the allowable range is from
0 to 16777215. You can specify a width of up to 9 digits.
 BIGINT - A large integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable range
is from -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. If unsigned, the allowable
range is from 0 to 18446744073709551615. You can specify a width of up to 11 digits.
 FLOAT(M,D) - A floating-point number that cannot be unsigned. You can define the
display length (M) and the number of decimals (D). This is not required and will default
to 10,2, where 2 is the number of decimals and 10 is the total number of digits
(including decimals). Decimal precision can go to 24 places for a FLOAT.
 DOUBLE(M,D) - A double precision floating-point number that cannot be unsigned.
You can define the display length (M) and the number of decimals (D). This is not
required and will default to 16,4, where 4 is the number of decimals. Decimal precision
can go to 53 places for a DOUBLE. REAL is a synonym for DOUBLE.
 DECIMAL(M,D) - An unpacked floating-point number that cannot be unsigned. In
unpacked decimals, each decimal corresponds to one byte. Defining the display length
(M) and the number of decimals (D) is required. NUMERIC is a synonym for DECIMAL.

Date and Time Types:

The MySQL date and time datatypes are:

 DATE - A date in YYYY-MM-DD format, between 1000-01-01 and 9999-12-31. For

example, December 30th, 1973 would be stored as 1973-12-30.
 DATETIME - A date and time combination in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format, between
1000-01-01 00:00:00 and 9999-12-31 23:59:59. For example, 3:30 in the afternoon
on December 30th, 1973 would be stored as 1973-12-30 15:30:00.
 TIMESTAMP - A timestamp between midnight, January 1, 1970 and sometime in 2037.
This looks like the previous DATETIME format, only without the hyphens between
numbers; 3:30 in the afternoon on December 30th, 1973 would be stored as
19731230153000 ( YYYYMMDDHHMMSS ).
 TIME - Stores the time in HH:MM:SS format.
 YEAR(M) - Stores a year in 2-digit or 4-digit format. If the length is specified as 2 (for
example YEAR(2)), YEAR can be 1970 to 2069 (70 to 69). If the length is specified as 4,
YEAR can be 1901 to 2155. The default length is 4.

String Types:

Although numeric and date types are fun, most data you'll store will be in string format. This list
describes the common string datatypes in MySQL.

 CHAR(M) - A fixed-length string between 1 and 255 characters in length (for example
CHAR(5)), right-padded with spaces to the specified length when stored. Defining a
length is not required, but the default is 1.
 VARCHAR(M) - A variable-length string between 1 and 255 characters in length; for
example VARCHAR(25). You must define a length when creating a VARCHAR field.

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 BLOB or TEXT - A field with a maximum length of 65535 characters. BLOBs are
"Binary Large Objects" and are used to store large amounts of binary data, such as
images or other types of files. Fields defined as TEXT also hold large amounts of data;
the difference between the two is that sorts and comparisons on stored data are case
sensitive on BLOBs and are not case sensitive in TEXT fields. You do not specify a
length with BLOB or TEXT.
 TINYBLOB or TINYTEXT - A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length of 255
characters. You do not specify a length with TINYBLOB or TINYTEXT.
 MEDIUMBLOB or MEDIUMTEXT - A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length of
16777215 characters. You do not specify a length with MEDIUMBLOB or MEDIUMTEXT.
 LONGBLOB or LONGTEXT - A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length of
4294967295 characters. You do not specify a length with LONGBLOB or LONGTEXT.
 ENUM - An enumeration, which is a fancy term for list. When defining an ENUM, you
are creating a list of items from which the value must be selected (or it can be NULL).
For example, if you wanted your field to contain "A" or "B" or "C", you would define
your ENUM as ENUM ('A', 'B', 'C') and only those values (or NULL) could ever populate
that field.

Create MySQL Tables

The table creation command requires:

 Name of the table

 Names of fields
 Definitions for each field

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax to create a MySQL table:

CREATE TABLE table_name (column_name column_type);

Now we will create following table in TUTORIALS database.

tutorials_tbl(
tutorial_id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
tutorial_title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
tutorial_author VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
submission_date DATE,
PRIMARY KEY ( tutorial_id )
);

Here few items need explanation:

 Field Attribute NOT NULL is being used because we do not want this field to be NULL.
SO if user will try to create a record with NULL value then MySQL will raise an error.
 Field Attribute AUTO_INCREMENT tells to MySQL to go ahead and add the next
available number to the id field.
 Keyword PRIMARY KEY is used to define a column as primary key. You can use
multiple columns separated by comma to define a primary key.

Creating Tables from Command Prompt:

This is easy to create a MySQL table from mysql> prompt. You will use SQL command CREATE
TABLE to create a table.

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Example:

Here is an example which creates tutorials_tbl:

root@host# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> CREATE TABLE tutorials_tbl(
-> tutorial_id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
-> tutorial_title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
-> tutorial_author VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
-> submission_date DATE,
-> PRIMARY KEY ( tutorial_id )
-> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.16 sec)
mysql>

NOTE: MySQL does not terminate a command until you give a semi colon (;) at the end of SQL
command.

Creating Tables Using PHP Script:

To create new table in any existing database you would need to use PHP function
mysql_query(). You will pass its second argument with proper SQL command to create a
table.

Example:

Here is an example to create a table using PHP script:

<html>
<head>
<title>Creating MySQL Tables</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'rootpassword';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully<br />';
$sql = "CREATE TABLE tutorials_tbl( ".
"tutorial_id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, ".
"tutorial_title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL, ".
"tutorial_author VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL, ".
"submission_date DATE, ".
"PRIMARY KEY ( tutorial_id )); ";
mysql_select_db( 'TUTORIALS' );
$retval = mysql_query( $sql, $conn );
if(! $retval )
{
die('Could not create table: ' . mysql_error());

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}
echo "Table created successfully\n";
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

Drop MySQL Tables

It is very easy to drop an existing MySQL table. But you need to be very careful while deleting
any existing table because data lost will not be recovered after deleting a table.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax to drop a MySQL table:

DROP TABLE table_name ;

Dropping Tables from Command Prompt:

This needs just to execute DROP TABLE SQL command at mysql> prompt.

Example:

Here is an example which deletes tutorials_tbl:

root@host# mysql -u root -p

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> DROP TABLE tutorials_tbl
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.8 sec)
mysql>

Dropping Tables Using PHP Script:

To drop an existing table in any database you would need to use PHP function mysql_query().
You will pass its second argument with proper SQL command to drop a table.

Example:
<html>
<head>
<title>Creating MySQL Tables</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'rootpassword';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}

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echo 'Connected successfully<br />';

$sql = "DROP TABLE tutorials_tbl";
mysql_select_db( 'TUTORIALS' );
$retval = mysql_query( $sql, $conn );
if(! $retval )
{
die('Could not delete table: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo "Table deleted successfully\n";
mysql_close($conn);
?>
</body>
</html>

MySQL Insert Query

To insert data into MySQL table you would need to use SQL INSERT INTO command. You can
insert data into MySQL table by using mysql> prompt or by using any script like PHP.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax of INSERT INTO command to insert data into MySQL table:

INSERT INTO table_name ( field1, field2,...fieldN )

VALUES
( value1, value2,...valueN );

To insert string data types it is required to keep all the values into double or single quote, for
example:- "value".

Inserting Data from Command Prompt:

This will use SQL INSERT INTO command to insert data into MySQL table tutorials_tbl

Example:

Following example will create 3 records into tutorials_tbl table:

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> INSERT INTO tutorials_tbl
->(tutorial_title, tutorial_author, submission_date)
->VALUES
->("Learn PHP", "John Poul", NOW());
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO tutorials_tbl
->(tutorial_title, tutorial_author, submission_date)
->VALUES
->("Learn MySQL", "Abdul S", NOW());
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO tutorials_tbl
->(tutorial_title, tutorial_author, submission_date)
->VALUES

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->("JAVA Tutorial", "Sanjay", '2007-05-06');

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
mysql>

NOTE: Please note that all the arrow signs (->) are not part of SQL command they are
indicating a new line and they are created automatically by MySQL prompt while pressing enter
key without giving a semi colon at the end of each line of the command.

In the above example we have not provided tutorial_id because at the time of table create we
had given AUTO_INCREMENT option for this field. So MySQL takes care of inserting these IDs
automatically. Here NOW() is a MySQL function which returns current date and time.

MySQL SELECT Query

The SQL SELECT command is used to fetch data from MySQL database. You can use this
command at mysql> prompt as well as in any script like PHP.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax of SELECT command to fetch data from MySQL table:

SELECT field1, field2,...fieldN table_name1, table_name2...

[WHERE Clause]
[OFFSET M ][LIMIT N]

 You can use one or more tables separated by comma to include various condition using
a WHERE clause. But WHERE clause is an optional part of SELECT command.
 You can fetch one or more fields in a single SELECT command.
 You can specify star (*) in place of fields. In this case SELECT will return all the fields
 You can specify any condition using WHERE clause.
 You can specify an offset using OFFSET from where SELECT will start returning records.
By default offset is zero
 You can limit the number of returned using LIMIT attribute.

Fetching Data from Command Prompt:

This will use SQL SELECT command to fetch data from MySQL table tutorials_tbl

Example:

Following example will return all the records from tutorials_tbl table:

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> SELECT * from tutorials_tbl
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| tutorial_id | tutorial_title | tutorial_author | submission_date |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1 | Learn PHP | John Poul | 2007-05-21 |
| 2 | Learn MySQL | Abdul S | 2007-05-21 |
| 3 | JAVA Tutorial | Sanjay | 2007-05-21 |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

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3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql>

MySQL WHERE Clause

We have seen SQL SELECT command to fetch data from MySQL table. We can use a conditional
clause called WHERE clause to filter out results. Using WHERE clause we can specify a selection
criteria to select required records from a table.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax of SELECT command with WHERE clause to fetch data from MySQL
table:

SELECT field1, field2,...fieldN table_name1, table_name2...

[WHERE condition1 [AND [OR]] condition2.....

 You can use one or more tables separated by comma to include various condition using
a WHERE clause. But WHERE clause is an optional part of SELECT command.
 You can specify any condition using WHERE clause.
 You can specify more than one conditions using AND or OR operators.
 A WHERE clause can be used alongwith DELETE or UPDATE SQL command also to
specify a condition.

The WHERE clause works like a if condition in any programming language. This clause is used
to compare given value with the field value available in MySQl table. If given value from outside
is equal to the available field value in MySQL table then it returns that row.

Here is the list of operators which can be used with WHERE clause.

Assume field A holds 10 and field B holds 20 then:

Operator Description Example

= Checks if the value of two operands is (A = B) is not true.

equal or not, if yes then condition
becomes true.

!= Checks if the value of two operands is (A != B) is true.

equal or not, if values are not equal then
condition becomes true.

> Checks if the value of left operand is (A > B) is not true.

greater than the value of right operand,
if yes then condition becomes true.

< Checks if the value of left operand is less (A < B) is true.

than the value of right operand, if yes
then condition becomes true.

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>= Checks if the value of left operand is (A >= B) is not true.

greater than or equal to the value of
right operand, if yes then condition
becomes true.

<= Checks if the value of left operand is less (A <= B) is true.

than or equal to the value of right
operand, if yes then condition becomes
true.

The WHERE clause is very useful when you want to fetch selected rows from a table, Specially
when you use MySQL Join. Joins are discussed in another chapter.

It is a common practice to search records using Primary Key to make search fast.

If given condition does not match any record in the table then query would not return any row.

Fetching Data from Command Prompt:

This will use SQL SELECT command with WHERE clause to fetch selected data from MySQL table
tutorials_tbl

Example:

Following example will return all the records from tutorials_tbl table for which author name is
Sanjay:

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> SELECT * from tutorials_tbl WHERE tutorial_author='Sanjay';
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| tutorial_id | tutorial_title | tutorial_author | submission_date |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 3 | JAVA Tutorial | Sanjay | 2007-05-21 |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql>

All the Unless performing a LIKE comparison on a string, the comparison is not case sensitive.
You can make your search case sensitive using BINARY keyword as follows.

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> SELECT * from tutorials_tbl \
WHERE BINARY tutorial_author='sanjay';
Empty set (0.02 sec)

mysql>

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MySQL UPDATE Query

There may be a requirement where existing data in a MySQL table need to be modified. You can
do so by using SQL UPDATE command. This will modify any field value of any MySQL table.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax of UPDATE command to modify data into MySQL table:

UPDATE table_name SET field1=new-value1, field2=new-value2

[WHERE Clause]

 You can update one or more field all together.

 You can specify any condition using WHERE clause.
 You can update values in a single table at a time.

The WHERE clause is very useful when you want to update selected rows in a table.

Updating Data from Command Prompt:

This will use SQL UPDATE command with WHERE clause to update selected data into MySQL
table tutorials_tbl

Example:

Following example will update tutorial_title field for a record having tutorial_id as 3.

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> UPDATE tutorials_tbl
-> SET tutorial_title='Learning JAVA'
-> WHERE tutorial_id=3;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

mysql>

MySQL DELETE Query

If you want to delete a record from any MySQL table then you can use SQL command DELETE
FROM. You can use this command at mysql> prompt as well as in any script like PHP.

Syntax:

Here is generic SQL syntax of DELETE command to delete data from a MySQL table:

DELETE FROM table_name [WHERE Clause]

 If WHERE clause is not specified then all the records will be deleted from the given
MySQL table.

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 You can specify any condition using WHERE clause.
 You can delete records in a single table at a time.

The WHERE clause is very useful when you want to delete selected rows in a table.

Deleting Data from Command Prompt:

This will use SQL DELETE command with WHERE clause to delete selected data into MySQL table
tutorials_tbl

Example:

Following example will delete a record into tutorial_tbl whose tutorial_id is 3.

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;

Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> DELETE FROM tutorials_tbl WHERE tutorial_id=3;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.23 sec)

mysql>

Further Detail:

Refer to the link http://www.tutorialspoint.com/mysql

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