# How to import an SQL file using the command line in MySQL?

By Bobby Iliev, 2021-11-10. https://bobbyiliev.com/post/how-to-import-an-sql-file-using-the-command-line-in-mysql/

# Introduction

In some cases if you have a really large `.sql` file, it is best to import it via the command line. 

You might need to do this in case that you are using a tool like PHPmyAdmin, which more often than not, has a certain limit that the file that you want to import could be.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to import an `.sql` file 

# Prerequisites

Before you get started you need to have MySQL installed and an `.sql` backup.

In case that you don't have an `.sql` backup of your database, you can follow the steps here on how to do that:

[How to export/backup a MySQL/MariaDB database with mysqldump](/post/how-to-exportbackup-a-mysqlmariadb-database-with-mysqldump/)

# Creating a blank database

What I usually prefer doing is to create a completely empty database, so that way I know that there will be no existing data or table structure which could cause issues during the import.

To create a new blank database, first access MySQL:

```
mysql -u your_user -p 
```

And then you can use the following statement:

```
CREATE DATABASE demo_db;
```

Finally exit the MySQL prompt:

```
exit;
```

> Note: make sure to change the `demo_db` with the name of the database that you want to create.

# Importing an `.sql` file to MySQL 

Once you have your plain database in place, you can import your `.sql` file using the following command:

```
mysql -h localhost -u username -p demo_db < your_exported_file.sql
```

Rundown of the command:

 * `mysql`: first we specify the MySQL client CLI tool
 * `-h`: this flag is used to specify the host that you want to import the data to. If you have your `.sql` file stored on the same server where your MySQL service is running on, you can specify `localhost` as the host, but if you are running your MySQL service on a remote server, make sure to change this accordingly.
 * `-u`: this flag specifies the MySQL username that you would like to use.
 * `-p`: this flag indicates that you should be prompted to enter a password once the command is executed. 
 * `demo_db`: this is the name of the database that we've just created in the previous step
 * `<`: this symbol indicates that we want to import the `.sql` file to the specified MySQL database
 * finally we have the name of the `.sql` file. Note that if the file is not in the same directory as your current directory, it is better to provide the full path to the `.sql` file, eg. `/home/devdojo/backups/some_backup.sql`.

Once you run the command it might take a while for the operation to complete depending on the size of the file. You would not see any output while the operation is on going.

# Conclusion

This is pretty much it! Now you know how to import a `.sql` file to a MySQL database!

To learn more about SQL, make sure to check out this free eBook here:

[💡 Introduction to SQL eBook](https://github.com/bobbyiliev/introduction-to-sql)

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