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MySQL for Absolute Beginners

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25-Aug-11 00:00
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Elated Elated's avatar Rank: gold
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This is a forum topic for discussing the article "MySQL for Absolute Beginners":

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

Never used MySQL before? Start here! This tutorial walks you through the very basics of MySQL and SQL databases. Learn how to install MySQL, how to issue commands, and how to create and use databases.
25-Aug-11 06:57
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mauco mauco's avatar Rank: silver
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Nice tutorial. Thanks.

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26-Aug-11 18:57
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Raven Raven's avatar Rank: none
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From: New Jersey
Nice article. What type of exercises would you recommend for learning MySQL and SQL?
29-Aug-11 06:49
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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Thanks for the positive feedback guys

@Raven: Good question! In my PHP book ( http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-PHP-5-3-Matt-Doyle/dp/0470413964 ) I give a fairly simple membership site example, with a Members table and an AccessLog table. I always find it helps to build a practical example - for example, a music database with artists, albums and tracks, or a shopping list manager with ingredients and recipes. Anything that involves real-world things, and uses a couple of tables that you join together, will give you a good grounding in SQL queries.

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Matt Doyle, Elated
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29-Aug-11 17:49
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Raven Raven's avatar Rank: none
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Thanks Matt, I really like the examples you gave me. For the longest I've been coding HTML and CSS, and tampering with PHP. But I've yet to actually dig in and build an application or component, this is just the inspiration I needed!
01-Sep-11 02:37
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@Raven: You're welcome, and good luck!

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Matt Doyle, Elated
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01-Sep-11 20:18
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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ok I set up the database and tried the set table command: source books.sql and I get an error: failed to open books.sql error 2
Books.sql being a notepad file where I copied the code in the tutorial and saved as a file in xampp/mysql/book.txt changing the .txt extension to .sql. What am I not doing right?

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Jack
02-Sep-11 02:30
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@jacknet: Make sure you're running the mysql command from the folder that contains your books.sql file. Also make sure it's called books.sql not book.sql.

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
02-Sep-11 05:56
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
@matt: Yes it's in the folder/path c:\xampp\mysql\books.sql. I'm sorry but I misspelled it in my email but it's correct in the folder. I type: mysql> source /books.sql And still get the error. Can't figure it out.

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Jack
02-Sep-11 15:10
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
This tutorial doesn't work and when you try to get help everyone ignores you.

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Jack
02-Sep-11 18:08
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@jacknet: I was about to help you some more, but then I saw your latest comment and it kinda put me off.

But I'll just add that you don't want that slash (/) before books.sql.

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
03-Sep-11 11:24
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
Matt - I apologize for my remark yesterday. I'm just frustrated because I followed your tutorial to the letter (more than once) and just couldn't get it to work, and still can't. I saw you answering other folks and felt ignored even after I sent an email. But again I apologize and know in life that you don't start a relationship with remarks like that and it was totally inappropriate for me to say what I did and expect further help. I really want to learn this. I have a great opportunity to join a marketing firm if I can prove I can do this stuff. I programmed in RPG several years ago and got out of computers, as a business, for awhile, then got back in about a year ago as a hardware/network tech for the local Boys and Girls Club. Now I work at the local library doing the same but miss programming and want to get back into it. So if you can forgive me and start over I'd like to learn your book. Thanks for your consideration.
Jack

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Jack
07-Sep-11 02:44
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@jacknet: No problem - just bear in mind that I'm often busy doing other things and don't always have the time to check the forums every few hours. I do my best to offer my help for free on these forums and mostly answer every question, but it's difficult when you have other commitments.

I usually answer all posts in the order they were posted, so if you see me answering other posts first then it's usually because they were posted before yours.

Now, with your MySQL problem, I can see that you've put your books.sql file in the wrong directory:

c:\xampp\mysql\books.sql

It should be in the same directory as your mysql binary:

c:\xampp\mysql\bin\books.sql

Alternatively, simply provide the full path to your books.sql file:

source c:/path/to/books.sql

Does that fix your problem?

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
07-Sep-11 09:31
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grimmdanny grimmdanny's avatar Rank: none
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Many thanks Matt, great tutorial. I have been looking into getting started with some MySQL and PHP, but didn't know where to start. Managed to get Beginning PHP 5.3 book, it's a great start to learning the basics and enjoying it so far.
08-Sep-11 10:14
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
@Matt: Well....I know you are going to think I'm crazy or my 'puter is. I tried every path possible from the Mysql prompt. I put the books.sql file in bin like you suggested which means I should be able to just type mysql> source books.sql and get the table to set up but all I get still is: Failed to open file 'books.sql' error: 2. I try every combination of commands you suggested in your tutorial and your forum message to me above. It just won't work. I have the file in the c:\xampp\mysql folder and the c:\xampp\mysql\bin folder. I don't know if you can suggest anything else. I know it's probably frustrating for you as it is for me. Thanks, Jack

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Jack
08-Sep-11 10:29
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
@matt: Conversely when I just run the commands: mysql> USE bookstore; That works. When I run: mysql> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS books; I got: Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning <0.00 sec>. So I thought I'd setup the table with the CREATE TABLE books; command and when I entered the long string you have in the file book.sql it doesn't work so I'm probably leaveing one little thing out or it's different at the command line than in the file. I'm also setting this all up in another box running ubuntu so maybe I'll have better luck there. Comments?

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Jack
08-Sep-11 12:47
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
Well Matt - You're gonna love this. I'm over on my linux box now and get the same results. Created the source file books.sql and put it in my c:\Home\username\Documents\books.sql folder because I can't find the bin folder in Mysql. So I ran the command mysql> source c:\home\jacknet\Documents\books.sql; and same results as before. So I must be doing something wrong on both computers. Just wish I could figure our what that something is. Peace...

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Jack
08-Sep-11 18:23
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@jacknet: You can't use a path like c:\home\jacknet\Documents\books.sql on a Linux box. Unix has no concept of a drive letter. Also the Unix path separator is '/' not '\'.

The error you're getting (assuming it's the same error in each case) is that MySQL can't find the file, so you're using the wrong path in each case.

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
08-Sep-11 18:56
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@grimmdanny: Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying the book!

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
10-Sep-11 11:37
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
@Matt: I agree the program/command "source" can't find the file books.sql. So let me go through the whole setup: I loaded xampp in the c drive. C:\xampp. In this folder is the folder "mysql". I put a copy of the file books.sql in that folder. In the folder mysql is a folder: bin. I also copied the file books.sql into that folder. So whether I run the command as follows: Mysql> source c:\xampp\mysql\books.sql; or Mysql> source c:\xampp\mysql\bin books.sql; or Msql> source books.sql; forward slash, backward slash it doesn't matter. I get the same error everytime "ERROR:
Failed to open file 'books.sql', error: 2
mysql>" This conversation is talking about on my windows 7 machine only. Do you see anything wrong in this. Thanks, Jack

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Jack
10-Sep-11 11:45
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
@Matt: Just to clarify more I created the file books.sql by copy/paste the code from your tutorial. My books.sql file looks like this:
USE bookstore;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS books;
CREATE TABLE books
(
id int unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
title varchar(255) NOT NULL,
author varchar(255) NOT NULL,
price decimal(10,2) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
Ok; so I just got the idea to run the commands in the file.
This is what I got:

Current database: bookstore

+--------------------+
| Database |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| bookstore |
| cdcol |
| mysql |
| performance_schema |
| phpmyadmin |
| test |
| webauth |
+--------------------+
8 rows in set (0.21 sec)

mysql> USE bookstore;
Database changed
mysql> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS books;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE TABLE books
-> (
-> id int unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
-> title varchar(255) NOT NULL,
-> author varchar(255) NOT NULL,
-> price decimal(10,2) NOT NULL,
-> PRIMARY KEY (id)
-> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.33 sec)

mysql>
Does this mean I have finally set up the database books?

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Jack
10-Sep-11 11:50
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
Yes it does, to wit:
mysql> show tables;
+---------------------+
| Tables_in_bookstore |
+---------------------+
| books |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.30 sec)

mysql> explain books;
+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| title | varchar(255) | NO | | NULL | |
| author | varchar(255) | NO | | NULL | |
| price | decimal(10,2) | NO | | NULL | |
+--------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
4 rows in set (0.06 sec)
but this does not explain the mystery of the source command finding the file books.sql.

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Jack
10-Sep-11 14:16
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jacknet jacknet's avatar Rank: none
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From: Copperhill, Tn USA
Well I certainly have used up this thread pretty good. Just to let you know I completed the tutorial on both boxes and as long as I leave that file books.sql alone I'm ok, but I sure wish I could solve that mystery because I'm sure I'll need it in the future. On to build a CMS in an afternoon. Please if you get a chance though Matt let me know your final thoughts on the books.sql mystery. Thanks, Jack

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Jack
12-Sep-11 05:40
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@jacknet: "Does this mean I have finally set up the database books?"

Yes. You can always just copy & paste SQL into the MySQL monitor.

No idea why you're having so many problems with your paths. I don't usually use Windows, but on my Win7 VM I can get it working no problem. You must use '/' not '\' in the MySQL monitor.

Feel free to start a new topic if you're still having path problems:

http://www.elated.com/forums/authoring-and-programming/topic/new/

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
05-Nov-11 10:42
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srafferty srafferty's avatar Rank: none
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Matt-

Thanks for posting this tutorial, I am trying to learn the basics here and am looking forward to completing your walk-through. One problem though- when I get to the part after you install XAMPP and try to start mysql (I'm on a Mac), I go to terminal and enter "mysql -u root", it just returns "-bash: mysql: command not found".

Any ideas? I've tried googling this problem and cannot find anyone else having the exact same issue. Lots of people having problems starting mysql but none with the same issue.

Hoping that I'm screwing something simple up here...

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!!
07-Nov-11 00:33
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@srafferty: I'm guessing you're running Lion? Apple removed MySQL by default in Lion (it now uses PostgreSQL). Therefore the default Apple mysql command line program will no longer be in your path, so you'll need to explicitly use the XAMPP version instead.

Try:

/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/mysql -u root

If that works, you can add /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/ to your path, then you can just type mysql next time!

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
05-Jan-12 09:50
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joy39 joy39's avatar Rank: none
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this is a very good tutorial for beginners. can we have one for php as well?
11-Jan-12 16:54
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@joy39: You might find these helpful:

http://www.elated.com/articles/cat/php/

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
14-Apr-12 16:11
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belamoor belamoor's avatar Rank: none
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Thanks for clear and easy to follow tutorial, it helps.
04-May-12 04:58
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matt matt's avatar Rank: gold
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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
@belamoor: That's good to hear - thanks

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/
27-May-12 18:07
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cleverfox cleverfox's avatar Rank: none
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Thank you so much once again! I first found your blog when I wanted to make my own Blogger template a few months ago and you absolutely taught me how to do that. Now I am learning databases with you. Your blog is fantastic! I am your devoted reader now.

I am seeing some people had problems with path to books.sql I had too. I was lazy to look for answers so I clicked on Xampp Control Panel PHP MyAdmin and somewhere there I found bookstore database and insert button. This worked and I was able to continue the tutorial.
12-Aug-12 07:48
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dopedroid dopedroid's avatar Rank: none
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From: bangalore, karnataka, india
Hi Buddies,

Well jst wanna say now we have a handy reference of SQL in android market named SQL guru for free .......go through tweaks in the tips and walkthroughs given.....its pretty cool.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dopdroid.mysqlguru

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DopeDroid
06-May-13 14:23
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SarahB SarahB's avatar Rank: none
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From: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hi Matt, really appreciate this article - it is the simplest and most straightforward definition and explanation of MySQL that I have been able to find on the web. Keep up the good work!
 
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