Using MySQL in Python

Some basic MySQL commands

In MySQL a DATABASE is composed by one or more TABLEs. Typically you create a database for each project.

To create a new MySQL database named `database_name` (the starting point of a new project using MySQL):

CREATE DATABASE database_name;

Show all databases: SHOW DATABASES;

To start using a database you must:

USE database_name;

To create a new table named users (an example):

CREATE TABLE users(id INT(11) AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(100), email VARCHAR(100), username VARCHAR(30), password VARCHAR(100), register_date TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

Show all tables: SHOW TABLES;

Get info on a TABLE (in this example users): DESCRIBE users;

Add data to table via command:

INSERT INTO users(name, email, username, password) VALUES(x, x, x, x)

Typical queries:

SELECT * FROM users; Select all rows from users table

Copying a database to another server

One the server where the DB is located make a backup file by running the following command (on Windows it may be necessary to cd Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/bin first:

mysqldump -u root -p database_name > C:\Users\USER\Desktop\database_name.sql

Alternatively: mysqldump -u[root] -p[password] database_123 > C:\Users\USER\Desktop\database_123.sql

If getting an "Access Denied" it message probably means you are outputing to a directory where you have no permission to create files.

On the second server create a new database using the same database name:

mysql -u root -p to start the MySQL shell

CREATE DATABASE database_123; to create the new DB

Copy the created backup to the second server and import it:

mysql -u[root] -p[password] database_name < database_name.sql

Usage in Python

Configuring in MySQL in Flask:

# Config MySQL
app.config['MYSQL_HOST'] = 'localhost'
app.config['MYSQL_USER'] = 'root'
app.config['MYSQL_PASSWORD'] = 'mypassword'
app.config['MYSQL_DB'] = 'flaskappdb'
app.config['MYSQL_CURSORCLASS'] = 'DictCursor'  # useful to return queries as dictionaries

# Initialize MySQL
mysql = MySQL(app)

Create cursor: cursor = mysql.connection.cursor()

Execute a MySQL command: cursor.execute( command )

Add data: cursor.execute("INSERT INTO users(name, email, username, password) VALUES(%s, %s, %s, %s)", (x, x, x, x))

Commit to database: mysql.connection.commit()

Close: cursor.close()

result = cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = %s", [username])`
data = cursor.fetchone()