(mysql.info)Database use

Now that you know how to enter commands, it's time to access a database.

Suppose you have several pets in your home (your menagerie) and you'd
like to keep track of various types of information about them.  You can
do so by creating tables to hold your data and loading them with the
desired information.  Then you can answer different sorts of questions
about your animals by retrieving data from the tables.  This section
shows you how to:

   * Create a database

   * Create a table

   * Load data into the table

   * Retrieve data from the table in various ways

   * Use multiple tables

The menagerie database will be simple (deliberately), but it is not
difficult to think of real-world situations in which a similar type of
database might be used.  For example, a database like this could be
used by a farmer to keep track of livestock, or by a veterinarian to
keep track of patient records.  A menagerie distribution containing
some of the queries and sample data used in the following sections can
be obtained from the MySQL Web site.  It's available in either
compressed `tar' format
(http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Contrib/Examples/menagerie.tar.gz) or
Zip format
(http://www.mysql.com/Downloads/Contrib/Examples/menagerie.zip).

Use the `SHOW' statement to find out what databases currently exist on
the server:

     mysql> SHOW DATABASES;
     +----------+
     | Database |
     +----------+
     | mysql    |
     | test     |
     | tmp      |
     +----------+

The list of databases is probably different on your machine, but the
`mysql' and `test' databases are likely to be among them.  The `mysql'
database is required because it describes user access privileges.  The
`test' database is often provided as a workspace for users to try
things out.

If the `test' database exists, try to access it:

     mysql> USE test
     Database changed

Note that `USE', like `QUIT', does not require a semicolon.  (You can
terminate such statements with a semicolon if you like; it does no
harm.)  The `USE' statement is special in another way, too:  it must be
given on a single line.

You can use the `test' database (if you have access to it) for the
examples that follow, but anything you create in that database can be
removed by anyone else with access to it.  For this reason, you should
probably ask your MySQL administrator for permission to use a database
of your own.  Suppose you want to call yours `menagerie'.  The
administrator needs to execute a command like this:

     mysql> GRANT ALL ON menagerie.* TO your_mysql_name;

where `your_mysql_name' is the MySQL user name assigned to you.