Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.

php

Home Downloads Images Forum Donate Bugtracker Help

Basic help on using HeidiSQL

This document aims to give users some basic help to get started with HeidiSQL. Over the years, the
feature list has grown longer and longer. So, especially new users sometimes don't know where to look at
for particular things. In such cases, you can watch out here for a first help. If you don't find what you're
looking for, please register in the forum and post a question.

Requirements
HeidiSQL runs fine on Windows 10 and 11 (and on Windows 7 + 8 with some minor issues). Running
HeidiSQL on Wine is currently quite unstable.

The normal way to install HeidiSQL is to download a release installer from the downloads page. After
installing, you may download nightly builds, either from the download page directly, or through HeidiSQL
itself (About > Check for updates).

Connecting to a server
Basics

HeidiSQL is a so called client application, only usable when you have some server available. So, make
sure you have some MariaDB, MySQL, MS SQL, PostgreSQL server or SQLite database file to connect to.

A simple setup is to have a MariaDB server installed on localhost (equivalent to the special IP address
127.0.0.1). In HeidiSQL's session manager, you click on the "New" button to create a new connection, and
most default settings are already set for you, except from the password, which is mostly not an empty one
on a This
newly installed
page uses MariaDB
cookies toserver:
show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
You can organize your stored sessions in folders. ToThat's
createoka folder, click the dropdown arrow on the "New"
button, then click "Folder in root folder" or "Folder in selected folder". Once you have a folder, you can

1 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

create connections in it, or drag existing connections into that folder.

Setting up a SSH tunnel connection to MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL

If your MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL server is located on a remote machine which is only accessible via
SSH, then you still can use HeidiSQL to connect to it. You just need the additional plink.exe from the
PuTTY project, place it somewhere on your harddisk, and finally tell HeidiSQL where it is and the SSH
credentials plus the MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL credentials.

Note that the default host name for the SSH server is the one you entered in the "Settings" tab. HeidiSQL
then advices plink.exe to connect to that host name, or, when you entered a SSH host name, that one is
taken. Additionally, the host name on the "Settings" tab is always taken for the -L (listen) option in plink.exe.

Example settings:

• "Settings" tab:
Hostname: "127.0.0.1"
Password: [your mysql password]
Port: "3306" in most cases
• "SSH tunnel tab:
SSH Host: [your server name]
Port: "22" in most cases
Username: [your ssh user]
Password: [your ssh password]
Local port: "3307"

The following error, or a similar one, is mostly caused by a tunnel onto the official IP address of your
remote server:
This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
Lost connection to MySQL server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 0
"Internal error/check (Not system error)" That's ok

2 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

In such cases, ensure you're using "127.0.0.1" in Settings > Hostname/IP, and the remote IP of your server
in SSH tunnel > Host.

Command line switches

Although HeidiSQL is a pure GUI application, it can be automated for connecting and opening files via
command line parameters. Parameter names are case sensitive and are based on those used by the
MariaDB/MySQL command line applications, e.g. mysqldump.

Common pitfalls:

• Be sure to call HeidiSQL with its full file name ("heidisql.exe"), not with the short version ("heidisql").
HeidiSQL's command line parser expects that this way. This should be fixed in the future.
• Parameter keys can be separated with = or one space from their value, e.g. -h=localhost
• Parameters containing a dot must be wrapped in double quotes. This is important when passing an
IP address: -h=192.168.1.1 will use only the first segment 192 , while -h="192.168.1.1" is
the correct form.

Short Long switch Description Default value

switch
-d --description Session name
-n --nettype Network protocol type: 0

• 0 = MariaDB/MySQL (TCP/IP)
• 1 = MariaDB/MySQL (named
pipe)
• 2 = MariaDB/MySQL (SSH
tunnel)
• 3 = MSSQL (named pipe)
• 4 = MSSQL (TCP/IP)
• 5 = MSSQL (SPX/IPX)
• 6 = MSSQL (Banyan VINES)
• 7 = MSSQL (Windows RPC)
• 8 = PostgreSQL (TCP/IP)
• 9 = PostgreSQL (SSH tunnel)
• 10 = SQLite
• 11 = ProxySQL Admin
• 12 = Interbase (TCP/IP)
• 13 = Interbase (local)
• 14 = Firebird (TCP/IP)
• 15 = Firebird (local)

-h --host Host name

-l --library Library or provider (added in v11.1): Depends on the given
network protocol, see
• MySQL/MariaDB: underlined values
◦ libmariadb.dll
◦ libmysql.dll
◦ libmysql-6.1.dll
◦ ... any fitting
This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized dll fromand
advertising yourserver usage statistic diagrams.
HeidiSQL directory
That's ok
• MS SQL:

3 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

◦ MSOLEDBSQL
◦ SQLOLEDB
• PostgreSQL:
◦ libpq.dll
◦ libpq-12.dll
◦ ... any fitting dll from your
HeidiSQL directory
• SQLite:
◦ sqlite3.dll
◦ ... any fitting dll from your
HeidiSQL directory
• Interbase:
◦ ibclient64-14.1.dll
◦ gds32-14.1.dll
◦ ... any fitting dll from your
HeidiSQL directory
• Firebird:
◦ fbclient-4.0.dll
◦ ... any fitting dll from your
HeidiSQL directory

-u --user User name

-p --password Password
-P --port Port
• MySQL/MariaDB:
3306
• MS SQL: 0 (auto-
detection by driver,
previously 1433)
• PostgreSQL: 5432
• SQLite: no value
• Interbase/Firebird:
3050

-S --socket Socket name, for connecting via

named pipe
-db --databases Databases, separated by semicolon.
Single database on PostgreSQL.
Interbase and Firebird expect a local
file here.
-W --winauth Use Windows authentication: 1 or 0. 0
(MSSQL, MySQL and MariaDB only).
-cte --cleartextenabled Enable cleartext authentication: 1 or 0
0. (MySQL and MariaDB only)
--ssl Use SSL. (1=yes, 0=no) 0
-sslpk --sslprivatekey SSL private key
-sslca --sslcacertificate SSL CA certificate
This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
-sslcert --sslcertificate SSL certificate
That's ok

4 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

-sslcip --sslcipher SSL cipher

--psettings Custom filename for portable settings. portable_settings.txt (if that
Ignored if file does not exist. file exists)

Examples:

• Start over using stored settings from session "xyz":

c:\path\to\heidisql.exe -d=xyz
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe -description=xyz
• Connect with different username or port:
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe -d=xyz -u=OtherUser
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe -d=xyz -P=3307
• Connect to a non-stored session:
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe -h="127.0.0.1" -u=root -p=Mypass -P=3307
• Open multiple .sql files in query tabs:
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe fileA.sql path\to\fileB.sql fileC.sql ...
• Use custom portable settings file:
c:\path\to\heidisql.exe --psettings=c:\temp\p.txt

The database tree

When you have a large amount of tables, views or whatever in your database(s), you probably want to
group these by their type, for a better overview. Just right click the tree and activate Tree style options >
Group objects by type:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

5 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

You can also mark important items as so called favorites, by mouse click on the very left area of a table.
Afterwards, you can limit the tree to show only favorites by a click on the new "Show only favorites" button
at the top:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

6 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Creating a table
HeidiSQL comes with a feature-rich GUI for creating and editing a table structure. Just right click the
datatabase in which you want to create a table, then point on "Create new", then click "Table":

Done that, you'll see the table editor like in the following picture:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

7 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Creating a view
Click "Create new", then click "View", to show up the view editor. Creating a view is basically like writing a
SELECT query. Give it a name, and click the save button to create it. HeidiSQL shows the data of the view
in the "Data" tab, like for tables.

One thing you might notice is that MySQL and MariaDB are reformatting the SELECT query in the view
when you save it. This destroys indentation, and converts the whole query into a one-liner. HeidiSQL tries
its best to restore the original code of the view, by loading it from the *.frm file on the server. However, this
fails in many cases, often due to restricted file privileges. For such cases, the only way to make it readable
again is to use HeidiSQL's reformatter (Ctrl+F8).

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

8 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Creating a stored procedure

Just right click the datatabase in which you want to create a procedure, then point on "Create new", then
click "Procedure" or "Function". Done that, you'll see the procedure editor like in the following picture:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

9 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Creating a trigger

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

10 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Creating a scheduled event

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok
The Data tab

11 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

On the data tab, the contents of the currently selected table or view are displayed. This is one of the most
useful and powerful features of HeidiSQL. You will see different colors for the various groups of data types.
These colors are customizable in Tools > Preferences > Data appearance.

Pressing F2 or one-long-click in a grid cell will start the editor mode. This will allow you inserting ordinary
values into a row. For inserting special values, such as SQL functions, NULL or GUIDs, right click a cell,
and point to the Insert value > submenu.

Quick filters: Right click a value in the grid, then click Quick filter to get various one-click options to create
a WHERE clause on the grid values. This filter can be base on either the focused cell in the grid, a
prompted value, or on the contents of your clipboard.

In the Quick filter sub menu, you will find a More values sub-sub-menu. Pointing to that menu, HeidiSQL
quickly collects and displays the top 30 items in the focused column, grouped by their value:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

12 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Finding specific values in such a grid can be a pain. For a simple client side filter, you can enter some value
in the filter panel. Activate it in Edit > Filter panel (Ctrl+Alt+F):

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

13 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

HeidiSQL can also assists you with a Search and replace dialog (Find mode: Ctrl+F, Replace mode:
Ctrl+R). That dialog can be used on SQL query tabs too.

Binary values, also called BLOBs, are by default displayed in hexadecimal format, which is mostly
unreadable for a human being. For cases in which such BLOBs contain readable text, HeidiSQL offers to
toggle between hex-mode and text-mode. Press or "unpress" the white button with the purple "0x" on it:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

14 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Probably you have a table with one or more integer columns which represent UNIX timestamps. HeidiSQL
can display such integer columns as date/time values, so you can better read them:

Running SQL queries

HeidiSQL has a "Query" tab by default. You can create more than this default one by pressing Ctrl+T, or by
right clicking the main tabs, then click "New query tab". In such a query tab, you can write your own
database queries, or load a .sql file from your harddisk. Pressing F9, or the button with the blue "play" icon
on it executes your query or queries.

Compound queries e.g. for creating a function often have a semicolon inside the query. As HeidiSQL
separates queries at each semicolon, you will get syntax errors when you run such commands. You can set
a different query delimiter for such purposes, e.g. "!!", as shown in the screenshot:

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

15 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Alternatively, you can change the delimiter via code:

DELIMITER !!
-- your code
DELIMITER ;

On the right hand of each query tab, you have the "query helpers" panel, with table columns, reserved
words, SQL functions etc.
Having a table selected in the left tree, the first tree item in the helpers show "Columns in <selected-
table>". The contained "Generate..." menu items use the selected column names to create a quick query
for you in the editor:

To see how your query performs in MariaDB or MySQL, you can activate the "Query profile" option in the
helpers box on the right. Then, run your query or queries, and see what the profile timings show. This is
basically what SHOW PROFILE in MySQL 5.0.37 and later releases does.

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

16 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

HeidiSQL supports parameterized SQL queries: Activate it per click on the checkbox "Bind parameter", and
start writing a query with parameters, e.g. select ':p'.

The first part of the bind parameter implementation was done by Adrian Granger.

HeidiSQL can execute a batch of queries (= multiple queries, separated by semicolon) in one go. That way,
execution gets dramatically faster, especially when having tons of mini queries. To activate that "one go
execution", just click the drop down menu of the blue "play" button, then click "Send batch in one go":

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok
MS SQL users should turn this on when having trouble with declaring a variable, e.g.:

17 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Declare @RowNo int =1;

SELECT @RowNo;

SQL export
HeidiSQL can generate nice SQL export files for you. This is basically what mysqldump also does.
However, you can also tell HeidiSQL to put the results of the export into

• an .sql file
• a ZIP compressed .sql file
• into your clipboard
• another database on the same server
• a new or existing database on a server on which you have a configured HeidiSQL session

Database(s)
Controls whether to a) drop an existing database on the target server first, and b) create it.
This is meant for the target server, not the source server!
Table(s)
Same as above, just for tables, views, procedures etc. When checked, the table(s) will be dropped
first, and/or created afterwards.
Data
How the rows are created on the target server. Select "No data" to make a structure-only export.
Default is "INSERT".
Max INSERT size
Defines the maximum size of the extended INSERT statements, which can hold multiple rows in one
statement. Note that a MariaDB/MySQL server limits the size of a query sent to the server by the
server variable max_allowed_packet. Be sure to use a lower value in this dialog, otherwise
This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
MariaDB/MySQL will kill your connection when importing that file.
Output That's ok
Either select a filename (zip compressed or uncompressed), a directory in which HeidiSQL will place

18 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

.sql files, clipboard, another database or a configured HeidiSQL (and a database name below).
Filename, Directory, or Database
Depends on what you selected in the "output" pulldown menu.

Importing files
HeidiSQL can import .sql files with data rows and/or structure, .csv files with data rows and binary files for
BLOBs.

Importing .sql files

At first, activate the database you want the import to run in. Then, go to File > "Run SQL file", and select
the file to import. Below the filename input box, you will find an Encoding dropdown menu. Using "Auto
detect" is a common way to get broken data afterwards - so if are sure about the encoding in that file,
you should definitely select the right one, e.g. "UTF-8". After clicking "OK", HeidiSQL will start to execute
the contained commands immediately, and you can watch the progress:

Importing .csv files (text files)

A .csv file is a text file with data rows for one table. You can import such a file into a table via Tools >
"Import CSV file". You will have to tell HeidiSQL the format of the file (line terminator, enclosing character
etc.).

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

19 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Importing binary or text files into BLOBs

Via Tools > "Insert files into TEXT/BLOB fields", you can insert new rows from all kind of files into your
tables. First, select the database and the table you want to put the files into. Then, click on the green "Add"
button, to add one or more files to the listing. In the upper listing you will have to tell HeidiSQL with
placeholders in which column the file content goes. In the "Value" column, click besides the right field name
and select '%filecontent%'. Some other placeholders are available in that dropdown. You can also wrap
the placeholders (or even static text) with some SQL function. For example if you want the file name in
lowercase, you apply LOWER('%filename%').

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

20 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

HeidiSQL portable
If HeidiSQL finds a portable.lock file, or a portable_settings.txt, or the custom filename as noted above,
it starts in portable mode. Which means basically that all settings are restored from that file and when
exiting stored again into that file.

When you download the portable package, that portable_settings.txt needs to be manually copied from
your old portable HeidiSQL directory. Not doing so will show you an empty session manager.

License
This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That'sGENERAL
HeidiSQL is OpenSource and released under GPL (GNU ok PUBLIC LICENSE). See the
license.txt for more details.

21 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Probably HeidiSQL saved you a lot of time and you like it. In this case you may make a donation here.

Credits
Author: Ansgar Becker (Germany)

Third party components and graphics:

• Joachim Marder (VirtualTreeView, GLPL)

• Christian Budde (SynEdit, MPL)
• Serhiy Perevoznyk (JumpList)
• Iztok Kacin (Cromis.DirectoryWatch, BSD License)
• Thomas Müller (GNU Gettext for Delphi, BSD License)
• Rodrigo Ruz (VCL Styles Utils)
• Dennis D. Spreen (VerySimpleXML)
• Charlie Etienne (Material Theme)
• Mahdi Safsafi (Delphi Detours Library)
• Volker Siebert (SizeGrip, M.I.T. License)
• Jordan Russell (Inno Setup)
• Mathias Rauen (madExcept)
• Icons8 (New high resolution icons, icons8.com)
• Mark James (Silk icons, Creative Commons 2.5)
• Sven Lorenz (graphics)

Former development contributors:

• David Dindorp (Denmark): threading, complex stuff, thinking

• Adrien Granger (France): query parameters
• Francisco Ernesto Teixeira (Brazil): motivation, ideas

Thanks to Transifex.com for a free translation account, and all the registered translators.

1000 thanks for great database software:

• Michael 'Monty' Widenus and his fellows for founding MySQL in 1995 and MariaDB in 2009
• Microsoft for their feature-rich SQL Server, ported from Sybase in 1989
• Michael Stonebraker and Larry Rowe for evolving PostgreSQL from Ingres in 1996
• Dwayne Richard Hipp for authoring SQLite in 2000

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

22 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM
Technical help document https://www.heidisql.com/help.php

Database powered by MariaDB

HeidiSQL is proudly built with Embarcadero Delphi

HeidiSQL on Facebook

Imprint

This page uses cookies to show you non-personalized advertising and server usage statistic diagrams.
That's ok

23 of 23 8/10/23, 2:58 PM