Creation and Use of Database in MySQL

The prerequisites for this document are that MySQL is installed and the MySQL daemon is running. The following guidelines are for creating a simple database, creating tables in that databse and then populating these tables in MySQL.

Step1: Connecting to the MySQL Server

In order to connect to the server, you will have to provide a hostname, username and password. Of these, hostname and password may not be needed. Contact your MySQL administrator to know what parameters are needed.

For example, the following can be the steps performed to connect to MySQL Server:
[purshah@gordon purshah]$ cd mysql-standard-4.0.14-pc-linux-i686/
[purshah@gordon mysql-standard-4.0.14-pc-linux-i686]$ ./bin/mysql -u purshah -p
Enter password:

The following is generally displayed:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 9 to server version: 4.0.14-standard
 
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
 
mysql>

Now you are connected to the MySQL Server.

Step 2: Creating and Using a Database

In this step, we shall have a look at how to
To create a database, the user should have the corresponding privileges. In case the user is not allowed to create a database, the MySQL administrator must be contacted. Also, every user is generally allowed to use the test database within MySQL. One can check the databases that can be used by using the command show databases;.
mysql> show databases;
+----------+
| Database |
+----------+
| test     |
+----------+
1 rows in set (0.01 sec)

In order to make use of a database, the use <database_name> command must be used.
mysql> use test;
Database changed

The next thing to do is to check what tables are already present. this is done using the show tables; command.
mysql> show tables;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

A table can be created by using create table statement.
mysql> create table temp (id int, firstname varchar(20), lastname varchar(20));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
 
mysql> show tables;
+----------------+
| Tables_in_test |
+----------------+
| temp           |
+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The table can be populated in a number of ways using the insert statement.

mysql> insert into temp values (1, 'Bimal', 'Shah');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
 
mysql> insert into temp values (2, 'Kaustubh', 'Nagarkar');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
 
mysql> insert into temp values (3, 'Kiran', 'Annaiah');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

The entries of a table can be displayed using a select - from - where statement.
mysql> select * from temp;
+------+-----------+----------+
| id   | firstname | lastname |
+------+-----------+----------+
|    1 | Bimal     | Shah     |
|    2 | Kaustubh  | Nagarkar |
|    3 | Kiran     | Annaiah  |
+------+-----------+----------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Step 3: Disconnecting from the MySQL Server

The user can disconnect from the MySQL Server by using the quit command.
mysql> quit
Bye

For more details regarding the use of MySQL please refer the online manual at http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/index.html