CLI Tools

Imagine our OnlineStore database has just received a large shipment of new products, and the supplier has provided the details in a comma-separated values (CSV) file containing thousands of entries. Manually entering these using INSERT statements would be incredibly time-consuming and error-prone. This is where a powerful command-line tool like mysqlimport comes to the rescue! It allows us to load data from text files directly into our database tables quickly and efficiently. 

By the end of this lesson, we’ll understand 

• Understand what mysqlimport is and where it fits in the MySQL toolchain.

• Explain why it’s valuable for Database Administrators (DBAs) handling bulk loads.

• Use its options to import data into MySQL tables from CSV, TSV, and other delimited formats.

• Practice with real-world scenarios using the OnlineStore sample database.

Understanding mysqlimport

mysqlimport is a command-line utility provided by MySQL that helps us import data from text files into database tables. Think of it as a bulk loading tool. Its primary importance lies in its efficiency and speed when dealing with large datasets. Instead of writing hundreds or thousands of INSERT SQL statements, we can use a single mysqlimport command to populate a table. This is particularly useful when:

• Migrating data from other systems.

• Regularly updating tables with data from external sources (like supplier feeds or logs).

• Restoring data that was previously exported to a text file.

• Automating data loading tasks through scripts.

Using mysqlimport can significantly reduce the time and effort involved in data loading, making it an indispensable tool for DBAs.

How mysqlimport works

Under the hood, mysqlimport acts as a command-line interface to the SQL statement LOAD DATA INFILE. When we run mysqlimport, it translates our command and options into this SQL statement and executes it on the MySQL server.

By default, mysqlimport expects the input filename to match the name of the table we want to import data into (e.g., a file named products.txt would be imported into the Products table). However, we can explicitly specify the table name if the filename is different. It’s designed to work with various structured text files, most commonly CSV files or files where values are separated by tabs.

One crucial aspect is whether the file is on the client machine (where we’re running the command) or on the server machine. The --local option ...