
This basic MySQL tutorial explains some of the basic SQL statements. If this is the first time you have used a relational database management system, this tutorial gives you everything you need to know to work with MySQL such as querying data, updating data, managing databases, and creating tables.

If you are already familiar with other relational database management systems such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server, you can use this tutorial to refresh your knowledge and understand how the SQL dialect of MySQL is different from other systems.
This basic MySQL tutorial explains some of the basic SQL statements.If this is the first time you have used a relational database management system, this tutorial gives you everything you need to know to work with MySQL such as querying data, updating data, managing databases, and creating tables. MySQL Cluster CGE. MySQL Cluster is a real-time open source transactional database designed for fast, always-on access to data under high throughput conditions. Cloud SQL is a fully managed service that makes it easy to set up, manage, and administer relational databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server. MySQL takes its name from Widenius’ daughter, named My. The MySQL project was released as open source in 2000, under the GNU General Public License (GPL). By 2001, MySQL had reached more than 2 million active installations; by 2004, the software was being downloaded more than 30,000 times a day.
Section 1. Getting started with MySQL
This section helps you get started with MySQL. We will start installing MySQL, downloading a sample database, and loading data into the MySQL server for practicing.
- Installing MySQL database server – show you step by step how to install MySQL database server on your computer.
- Downloading MySQL sample database – introduce you to a MySQL sample database named
classicmodels. We also provide you links for downloading the sample database and its diagrams. - Loading the sample database into your own MySQL database server – walk you through steps of how to load the
classicmodelssample database into your MySQL database server for practicing.
Section 2. Querying data
This section helps you learn how to query data from the MySQL database server. We will start with a simple SELECT statement that allows you to query data from a single table.
- SELECT – show you how to use simple
SELECTstatement to query the data from a single table.
Section 3. Sorting data
- ORDER BY – show you how to sort the result set using
ORDER BYclause. The custom sort order with theFIELDfunction will be also covered.
Section 4. Filtering data
- WHERE – learn how to use the
WHEREclause to filter rows based on specified conditions. - SELECT DISTINCT – show you how to use the
DISTINCToperator in theSELECTstatement to eliminate duplicate rows in a result set. - AND – introduce you to the
ANDoperator to combine Boolean expressions to form a complex condition for filtering data. - OR– introduce you to the
ORoperator and show you how to combine theORoperator with theANDoperator to filter data. - IN – show you how to use the
INoperator in theWHEREclause to determine if a value matches any value in a list or a subquery. - BETWEEN – show you how to query data based on a range using
BETWEENoperator. - LIKE – provide you with technique to query data based on a specific pattern.
- LIMIT – use
LIMITto constrain the number of rows returned bySELECTstatement - IS NULL – test whether a value is
NULLor not by usingIS NULLoperator.
Section 5. Joining tables
- Table & Column Aliases – introduce you to table and column aliases.
- Joins – give you an overview of joins supported in MySQL including inner join, left join, and right join.
- INNER JOIN – query rows from a table that has matching rows in another table.
- LEFT JOIN – return all rows from the left table and matching rows from the right table or null if no matching rows found in the right table.
- RIGHT JOIN – return all rows from the right table and matching rows from the left table or null if no matching rows found in the left table.
- CROSS JOIN – make a Cartesian product of rows from multiple tables.
- Self-join – join a table to itself using table alias and connect rows within the same table using inner join and left join.
Section 6. Grouping data
- GROUP BY – show you how to group rows into groups based on columns or expressions.
- HAVING – filter the groups by a specific condition.
- ROLLUP – generate multiple grouping sets considering a hierarchy between columns specified in the
GROUP BYclause.
Section 7. Subqueries
- Subquery – show you how to nest a query (inner query) within another query (outer query) and use the result of the inner query for the outer query.
- Derived table – introduce you to the derived table concept and show you how to use it to simplify complex queries.
- EXISTS – test for the existence of rows.
Section 8. Common Table Expressions
- Common Table Expression or CTE – explain to you the common table expression concept and show you how to use CTE for querying data from tables.
- Recursive CTE – use the recursive CTE to traverse the hierarchical data.
Section 9. Set operators
- UNION and UNION ALL – combine two or more result sets of multiple queries into a single result set.
- INTERSECT – show you a couple of ways to simulate the
INTERSECToperator. - MINUS – explain to you the SQL MINUS operator and show you how to simulate it.
Section 10. Modifying data in MySQL
In this section, you will learn how to insert, update, and delete data from tables using various MySQL statements.
- INSERT – use various forms of the
INSERTstatement to insert data into a table. - INSERT Multiple Rows – insert multiple rows into a table.
- INSERT INTO SELECT – insert data into a table from the result set of a query.
- INSERT IGNORE – explain you the
INSERT IGNOREstatement that inserts rows into a table and ignores rows that cause errors. - UPDATE – learn how to use
UPDATEstatement and its options to update data in database tables. - UPDATE JOIN – show you how to perform cross-table update using
UPDATE JOINstatement withINNER JOINandLEFT JOIN. - DELETE – show you how to use the
DELETEstatement to delete rows from one or more tables. - ON DELETE CASCADE – learn how to use
ON DELETE CASCADEreferential action for a foreign key to delete data from a child table automatically when you delete data from a parent table. - DELETE JOIN – show you how to delete data from multiple tables.
- REPLACE – learn how to insert or update data depends on whether data exists in the table or not.
- Prepared Statement – show you how to use the prepared statement to execute a query.
Section 11. MySQL transaction
- Transaction – learn about MySQL transactions, and how to use
COMMITandROLLBACKto manage transactions in MySQL. - Table locking – learn how to use MySQL locking for cooperating table access between sessions.
Section 12. Managing MySQL databases and tables
This section shows you how to manage the most important database objects in MySQL including databases and tables.
- Selecting a MySQL database – show you how to use the
USEstatement to select a MySQL database via themysqlprogram and MySQL Workbench. - Managing databases – learn various statements to manage MySQL databases including creating a new database, removing an existing database, selecting a database, and listing all databases.
- CREATE DATABASE – show you how to create a new database in MySQL Server.
- DROP DATABASE – learn how to delete an existing database.
- MySQL storage engines– it is essential to understand the features of each storage engine so that you can use them effectively to maximize the performance of your databases.
- CREATE TABLE – show you how to create new tables in a database using
CREATE TABLEstatement. - MySQL sequence – show you how to use a sequence to generate unique numbers automatically for the primary key column of a table.
- ALTER TABLE – learn how to use the
ALTER TABLEstatement to change the structure of a table. - Renaming table – show you how to rename a table using
RENAME TABLEstatement. - Removing a column from a table – show you how to use the
ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMNstatement to remove one or more columns from a table. - Adding a new column to a table – show you how to add one or more columns to an existing table using
ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMNstatement. - DROP TABLE – show you how to remove existing tables using
DROP TABLEstatement. - Temporary tables – discuss MySQL temporary table and show you how to manage temporary tables.
- TRUNCATE TABLE – show you how to use the
TRUNCATE TABLEstatement to delete all data in a table fast. - Generated columns – learn how to use the MySQL generated columns to store data computed from an expression or other columns.
Section 13. MySQL data types

- MySQL data types – show you various data types in MySQL so that you can apply them effectively in designing database tables.
- INT – show you how to use integer data type.
- DECIMAL – show you how to use
DECIMALdatatype to store exact values in decimal format. - BIT – introduce you
BITdatatype and how to store bit values in MySQL. - BOOLEAN – explain to you how MySQL handles Boolean values by using
TINYINT(1)internally. - CHAR – a guide to
CHARdata type for storing the fixed-length string. - VARCHAR – give you the essential guide to
VARCHARdatatype. - TEXT – show you how to store text data using
TEXTdatatype. - DATE – introduce you to the
DATEdatatype and show you some date functions to handle the date data effectively. - TIME – walk you through the features of
TIMEdatatype and show you how to use some useful temporal functions to handle time data. - DATETIME – introduce you to the
DATETIMEdatatype and some useful functions to manipulateDATETIMEvalues. - TIMESTAMP – introduce you to
TIMESTAMPand its features called automatic initialization and automatic update that allows you to define auto-initialized and auto-updated columns for a table. - JSON – show you how to use JSON data type to store JSON documents.
- ENUM – learn how to use
ENUMdatatype correctly to store enumeration values.
Section 14. MySQL constraints

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- NOT NULL constraint – introduce you to the
NOT NULLconstraint and show you how to declare aNOT NULLcolumn or add aNOT NULLconstraint to an existing column. - Primary key constraint – guide you on how to use the primary key constraint to create the primary key for a table.
- Foreign key constraint – introduce you to the foreign key and show you step by step how to create and drop foreign keys.
- Disable foreign key checks – learn how to disable foreign key checks.
- UNIQUE constraint – show you how to use
UNIQUEconstraint to enforce the uniqueness of values in a column or a group of columns in a table. - CHECK constraint – learn how to create
CHECKconstraints to ensure data integrity. - CHECK constraint emulation – if you use MySQL 8.0.15 or earlier version, you can emulate
CHECKconstraints using views or triggers.
Section 15. MySQL globalization
- Character Set – discuss character set and show you step by step how to perform various operations on character sets.
- Collation – discuss collation and show you how to set character sets and collations for the MySQL server, database, tables, and columns.
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Section 16. MySQL import & export
- Import CSV File Into MySQL Table – show you how to use
LOAD DATA INFILEstatement to import CSV file into a MySQL table. - Export MySQL Table to CSV – learn various techniques of how to export MySQL table to a CSV file format.
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Section 17. Advanced techniques
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- Natural sorting – walk you through various natural sorting techniques in MySQL using the
ORDER BYclause.