Import data from TXT to MySQL via command line on MacOS

Want to import data from TXT file to MySQL via Command Line Interface (CLI) on MacOS?

Using my-cmd, a Command Line Interface (CLI) client for MySQL, you can import data from TXT file to MySQL (MariaDB, Percona) easily and fast. Direct Interaction or Scripting and Automation.

• No need to install MySQL client library.
• Convenient to deploy to cloud. No need to run installation file, just uncompress and run, immediately.
• Commands are entered into a terminal or command prompt, accessed from local or remote (like SSH).
• Support Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Download my-cmd Macos version
my-cmd.darwin-amd64.zip
my-cmd.darwin-arm64.zip

Import data from TXT file to MySQL (MariaDB, Percona) via command line on MacOS

1. In interactive mode:

my-cmd> load loadtype=replace
      > table=media_messages 
      > datafile=/data/media_messages.txt 
      > delimiter=, 
      > quote=" 
      > header=y;

2. In batch mode:

my-cmd dsn="pan:withdata@192.168.0.102/test" task=load loadtype=replace table=media_messages datafile=/data/media_messages.txt delimiter=, quote=" header=y quit=y

“loadtype=replace” will delete all data in table before inserting.

See parameters detail.

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More about my-cmd – Command Line Interface (CLI) tool for MySQL

TXT → MySQL reference

Type mapping

Value kind	in TXT	in MySQL
Int	1234, or right-aligned in a fixed-width column	INT
Bigint	9007199254740993	BIGINT
Decimal	1234.56	DECIMAL(p,s)
Float	1.234e+10	DOUBLE
Text	written as-is; padding depends on the chosen layout	VARCHAR(n)
Long text	written as-is	LONGTEXT
Date	whatever the writer chose	DATE
Datetime	whatever the writer chose	DATETIME
Binary	not representable	LONGBLOB
Boolean	Y / N, or 1 / 0, or TRUE / FALSE	TINYINT(1)
JSON	written as-is	JSON

Dialect differences

TXT is a file format and MySQL is a database server, so the target has to be told the types the file never carried - the rows below are where the two sides diverge.

Property	in TXT	in MySQL
port	—	3306
identifiers	None by convention	`backtick`
row limit	—	LIMIT n
dates	Whatever the writer produced; no convention is guaranteed	DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, DATE, TIME
long text	—	TINYTEXT / TEXT / MEDIUMTEXT / LONGTEXT
binary	Not supported	BLOB / TINYBLOB / LONGBLOB
separator	Whatever was chosen - often fixed column widths	—
encoding	No declaration - UTF-8 works only with a BOM	—
typing	None - every field is text	—
shape	Free form; a parser has to be told the layout	Tables of rows and columns
ceiling	No formal limit	—

Command line

Side	Command
MySQL	mysqldump, or mysql -e "SELECT ..." > out.csv
MySQL (load)	mysqlimport, or LOAD DATA INFILE

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