MacLochlainns Weblog

There are many ways to test and edit files. A lot of developers only use their favorite Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) but I find testing script files within the scope of a pipelined set of scripts much faster.

The ability to edit a script from within the MySQL Command-Line Interface (CLI) or MySQL Shell would be nice but unfortunately, doesn’t exist. You can always subshell to edit a file or list files in the present working directory, like:

mysql> \! vi task.sql

I prefer to test at the OS level while leveraging the up-arrow key for command history. Here’s my quick edit and test script technique from your present working directory:

1. Assume you create a task.sql test file, like:

   SELECT user() AS "Current User"\G

   SELECT user() AS "Current User"\G

2. You can edit with vi or emac and test the script interactively from the present working directory.
   • You can edit the file with the following syntax:

     vi task.sql

     vi task.sql

   • then, you can test the task.sql file:

     mysql -ustudent -p -Dstudentdb < task.sql

     mysql -ustudent -p -Dstudentdb < task.sql

   • It returns the following:

     Enter password: *************************** 1. row *************************** Current User: student@localhost

     Enter password: *************************** 1. row *************************** Current User: student@localhost

   • If you have the desired outcome, you’re done. However, if you need further change you repeat the process.

As always, I hope this helps those looking for a quick way to accomplish a task.