Add Data to a MySQL Database

You can insert data to the tables directly from mysql> prompt or by loading a file containing the data. The values will be tab separated one line represent one record.

To insert the data directly from mysql use the INSERT statement. The format for INSERT is INSERT INTO <table name> (column1, column2, ....) values ( 'value1', 'value2', ...). For example to insert a species name into the table species the command is like this :

Remember to put single quotes around a value it is a string.

Notice that i don't have to set the value of id because id have AUTO_INCREMENT attribute. Whenever you insert a new record to the table the value of id is set automatically by mysql with increasing values. The AUTO_INCREMENT attribute is commonly used to create unique identity for new rows

Next example will show how to insert data from a text file, you can get the file here and try in on your computer.

You can also run SQL queries directly from the DOS prompt. Assuming insert.txt is in C: you can run the query in insert.txt like this