How do I import CSV file into a MySQL table?

Question

I have an unnormalized events-diary CSV from a client that I'm trying to load into a MySQL table so that I can refactor into a sane format. I created a table called 'CSVImport' that has one field for every column of the CSV file. The CSV contains 99 columns , so this was a hard enough task in itself:

CREATE TABLE 'CSVImport' (id INT);
ALTER TABLE CSVImport ADD COLUMN Title VARCHAR(256);
ALTER TABLE CSVImport ADD COLUMN Company VARCHAR(256);
ALTER TABLE CSVImport ADD COLUMN NumTickets VARCHAR(256);
...
ALTER TABLE CSVImport Date49 ADD COLUMN Date49 VARCHAR(256);
ALTER TABLE CSVImport Date50 ADD COLUMN Date50 VARCHAR(256);

No constraints are on the table, and all the fields hold VARCHAR(256) values, except the columns which contain counts (represented by INT), yes/no (represented by BIT), prices (represented by DECIMAL), and text blurbs (represented by TEXT).

I tried to load data into the file:

LOAD DATA INFILE '/home/paul/clientdata.csv' INTO TABLE CSVImport;
Query OK, 2023 rows affected, 65535 warnings (0.08 sec)
Records: 2023  Deleted: 0  Skipped: 0  Warnings: 198256
SELECT * FROM CSVImport;
| NULL             | NULL        | NULL           | NULL | NULL               | 
...

The whole table is filled with NULL.

I think the problem is that the text blurbs contain more than one line, and MySQL is parsing the file as if each new line would correspond to one databazse row. I can load the file into OpenOffice without a problem.

The clientdata.csv file contains 2593 lines, and 570 records. The first line contains column names. I think it is comma delimited, and text is apparently delimited with doublequote.

UPDATE:

When in doubt, read the manual: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/load-data.html

I added some information to the LOAD DATA statement that OpenOffice was smart enough to infer, and now it loads the correct number of records:

LOAD DATA INFILE "/home/paul/clientdata.csv"
INTO TABLE CSVImport
COLUMNS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 LINES;

But still there are lots of completely NULL records, and none of the data that got loaded seems to be in the right place.

Answer 1

The core of your problem seems to be matching the columns in the CSV file to those in the table.

Many graphical mySQL clients have very nice import dialogs for this kind of thing.

My favourite for the job is Windows based HeidiSQL. It gives you a graphical interface to build the LOAD DATA command; you can re-use it programmatically later.

Screenshot: "Import textfile" dialog

To open the Import textfile" dialog, go to Tools > Import CSV file:

Answer 2

Use mysqlimport to load a table into the database:

mysqlimport --ignore-lines=1 \
            --fields-terminated-by=, \
            --local -u root \
            -p Database \
             TableName.csv

I found it at http://chriseiffel.com/everything-linux/how-to-import-a-large-csv-file-to-mysql/

To make the delimiter a tab, use --fields-terminated-by='\t'

Answer 3

Simplest way which I have imported 200+ rows is below command in phpmyadmin sql window

I have a simple table of country with two columns CountryId,CountryName

here is .csv data

here is command:

LOAD DATA INFILE 'c:/country.csv' 
INTO TABLE country 
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' 
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 ROWS

Keep one thing in mind, never appear , in second column, otherwise your import will stop

Answer 4

I know that the question is old, But I would like to share this

I Used this method to import more than 100K records (~5MB) in 0.046sec

Here's how you do it:

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE  
'c:/temp/some-file.csv'
INTO TABLE your_awesome_table  
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' 
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
(field_1,field_2 , field_3);

It is very important to include the last line , if you have more than one field i.e normally it skips the last field (MySQL 5.6.17)

LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
(field_1,field_2 , field_3);

Then, assuming you have the first row as the title for your fields, you might want to include this line also

IGNORE 1 ROWS

This is what it looks like if your file has a header row.

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE  
'c:/temp/some-file.csv'
INTO TABLE your_awesome_table  
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' 
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 ROWS
(field_1,field_2 , field_3);

Answer 5

phpMyAdmin can handle CSV import. Here are the steps:

1. Prepare the CSV file to have the fields in the same order as the MySQL table fields.

2. Remove the header row from the CSV (if any), so that only the data is in the file.

3. Go to the phpMyAdmin interface.

4. Select the table in the left menu.

5. Click the import button at the top.

6. Browse to the CSV file.

7. Select the option "CSV using LOAD DATA".

8. Enter "," in the "fields terminated by".

9. Enter the column names in the same order as they are in the database table.

10. Click the go button and you are done.

This is a note that I prepared for my future use, and sharing here if someone else can benefit.

Answer 6

You can fix this by listing the columns in you LOAD DATA statement. From the manual:

LOAD DATA INFILE 'persondata.txt' INTO TABLE persondata (col1,col2,...);

...so in your case you need to list the 99 columns in the order in which they appear in the csv file.

Answer 7

If you are using MySQL Workbench (currently 6.3 version) you can do this by:

1. Right click on "Tables";
2. Chose Table Data Import Wizard;
3. Chose your csv file and follow the instructions (JSON also could be used); The good thing is that you can create a new table based on the csv file you want to import or load data to an existing table

Answer 8

Try this, it worked for me

    LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'filename.csv' INTO TABLE table_name FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' IGNORE 1 ROWS;

IGNORE 1 ROWS here ignores the first row which contains the fieldnames. Note that for the filename you must type the absolute path of the file.

Answer 9

The mysql command line is prone to too many problems on import. Here is how you do it:

• use excel to edit the header names to have no spaces
• save as .csv
• use free Navicat Lite Sql Browser to import and auto create a new table (give it a name)
• open the new table insert a primary auto number column for ID
• change the type of the columns as desired.
• done!

Answer 10

I see something strange. You are using for ESCAPING the same character you use for ENCLOSING. So the engine does not know what to do when it founds a '"' and I think that is why nothing seems to be in the right place. I think that if you remove the line of ESCAPING, should run great. Like:

LOAD DATA INFILE "/home/paul/clientdata.csv"
INTO TABLE CSVImport
COLUMNS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 LINES;

Unless you analyze (manually, visually, ... ) your CSV and find which character uses for escape. Sometimes is '\'. But if you do not have it, do not use it.

Answer 11

Yet another solution is to use csvsql tool from amazing csvkit suite.

Usage example:

csvsql --db mysql://$user:$password@localhost/$database --insert --tables $tablename  $file

This tool can automatically infer the data types (default behavior), create table and insert the data into the created table. --overwrite option can be used to drop table if it already exists. --insert option — to populate the table from the file.

To install the suite

pip install csvkit

Prerequisites: python-dev, libmysqlclient-dev, MySQL-python

apt-get install python-dev libmysqlclient-dev
pip install MySQL-python

Answer 12

How to import csv files to sql tables

Example file: Overseas_trade_index data CSV File

Steps:

1. Need to create table for overseas_trade_index.

2. Need to create columns related to csv file.

   SQL Query:

   ( id int not null primary key auto_increment,
   series_reference varchar (60),
   period varchar (60),
   data_value decimal(60,0),
   status varchar (60),
   units varchar (60),
   magnitude int(60),
   subject text(60),
   group text(60),
   series_title_1 varchar (60),
   series_title_2 varchar (60),
   series_title_3 varchar (60),
   series_title_4 varchar (60),
   series_title_5 varchar (60),
    );
   

3. Need to connect mysql database in terminal.

   =>show databases;
   =>use database;
   =>show tables;
   

4. Please enter this command to import the csv data to mysql tables.

   load data infile '/home/desktop/Documents/overseas.csv' into table trade_index fields terminated by ',' lines terminated by '\n' (series_reference,period,data_value,status,units,magnitude,subject,series_title1,series_title_2,series_title_3,series_title_4,series_title_5);
   

5. Find this overseas trade index data on sqldatabase:

   select * from trade_index;
   

Answer 13

If you are using a windows machine with Excel spreadsheet loaded, the new mySql plugin to Excel is phenomenal. The folks at Oracle really did a nice job on that software. You can make the database connection directly from Excel. That plugin will analyse your data, and set up the tables for you in a format consistent with the data. I had some monster big csv files of data to convert. This tool was a big time saver.

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/windows/excel/

You can make updates from within Excel that will populate to the database online. This worked exceedingly well with mySql files created on ultra inexpensive GoDaddy shared hosting. (Note when you create the table at GoDaddy, you have to select some off-standard settings to enable off site access of the database...)

With this plugin you have pure interactivity between your XL spreadsheet and online mySql data storage.

Answer 14

In case if you using Intellij https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/features/importexport.html

Answer 15

I use mysql workbench to do the same job.

1. create new schema
2. open newly created schema
3. right click on "Tables" and select "Table Data Import Wizard"
4. give the csv file path and table name and finally configure your column type because the wizard set default column type based on their values.

Note: take a look at mysql workbench's log file for any errors by using "tail -f [mysqlworkbenchpath]/log/wb*.log"

Answer 16

Here is sample excel file screen shot:

Save as and choose .csv.

And you will have as shown below .csv data screen shot if you open using notepad++ or any other notepad.

Make sure you remove header and have column alignment in .csv as in mysql Table. Replace folder_name by your folder name

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE
'D:/folder_name/myfilename.csv' INTO TABLE mail FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' (fname,lname ,email, phone);

If big data, you can take coffee and have it load!.

Thats all you need.

Answer 17

PHP Query for import csv file to mysql database

$query = <<<EOF
            LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE '$file'
             INTO TABLE users
             FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
             LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
             IGNORE 1 LINES
            (name,mobile,email)
    EOF;
if (!$result = mysqli_query($this->db, $query))
   {
        exit(mysqli_error($this->db));
   }

**Sample CSV file data **

name,mobile,email
Christopher Gritton,570-686-3439,[email protected]
Brandon Wilson,541-309-5149,[email protected]
Craig White,516-795-8065,[email protected]
David Whitney,713-214-3966,[email protected]

Answer 18

Change servername,username, password,dbname,path of your file, tablename and the field which is in your database you want to insert

<?php
    $servername = "localhost";
    $username = "root";
    $password = "";
    $dbname = "bd_dashboard";
    //For create connection
    $conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

    $query = "LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 
                'C:/Users/lenovo/Desktop/my_data.csv'
                INTO TABLE test_tab
                FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
                LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
                IGNORE 1 LINES
                (name,mob)";
    if (!$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query)){
        echo '<script>alert("Oops... Some Error occured.");</script>';
        exit();
            //exit(mysqli_error());
       }else{
        echo '<script>alert("Data Inserted Successfully.");</script>'
       }
    ?>

Answer 19

I did it in simple way using phpmyadmin. I followed the steps by @Farhan but all data were eltered in single column. How I did:

1. Created a CSV file and deleted the header row with column names. Kept only data.
2. I created a table with column names matching the csv columns.
3. Remember to assign appropriate types to each column.
4. I just selected the import and went to import tab.
5. In browse I selected the CSV file and kept all options as it is.
6. To my surprise all the data got imported successfully in their appropriate columns.