Database and development teams often load data from plain text files into their MySQL databases. The files might be used to add lookup data, support test and development environments, populate new MySQL instances, load data from regular feeds, or in other ways support their operations. To help with the import process, MySQL provides the In this article, I show how to use the Note: The examples in this article are based on a local instance of MySQL that hosts a very simple database and table. The last section of the article\u2014\u201cAppendix: Preparing your MySQL environment\u201d\u2014provides information about how I set up my system and includes a SQL script for creating the database and table on which the examples are based.<\/p>\n Importing data from a text file into a MySQL database is in itself a fairly straightforward process. Often the most difficult part of the operation is setting up your environment to ensure that it will allow you to run a When you create a LOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement, which reads rows from a text file and inserts them into the target table.<\/p>\nLOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement to add data from comma-separated values (CSV) files and other plain text files. Although the examples are fairly basic, they demonstrate the fundamental components that go into a LOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement and some of the issues you might run up against along the way. Each example retrieves data from a file on the local system and adds the data to the manufacturers<\/code> table in the travel<\/code> database, which you\u2019ve seen in previous articles in this series.<\/p>\nConnecting to the MySQL server<\/h2>\n
LOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement and import the data into the target table. As with any SQL statement in MySQL, you must have been granted the privileges necessary to carry out your operations (a topic beyond the scope of this article). However, there are a few other issues to be aware of in order to import data, starting with the LOCAL<\/code> option.<\/p>\nLOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement, you can include the LOCAL<\/code> option as part of the statement definition. The option determines the statement\u2019s security requirements as well as whether the source text file is located on the client system or the server hosting the MySQL instance:<\/p>\n\n
LOCAL<\/code> option, the source text file must be located on the MySQL host. When you run the LOAD<\/code> DATA<\/code> statement, MySQL reads the file directly from the directory and inserts the data into the target table. This approach generally performs a little better than when you include the LOCAL<\/code> option because the data is loaded more directly. However, getting the connection right is much more difficult (and the topic for many online discussions).<\/li>\nLOCAL<\/code> option, the source text file must be located on the client machine. The client reads the file and sends the content to the server, where it is stored in a temporary file until it is loaded into the target table for processing. The LOCAL<\/code> option also works if the client and MySQL are on the same machine, which is the approach I\u2019ve taken for this article. Connectivity is typically much easier to establish when you use the LOCAL<\/code> option.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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