SELECT INTO OUTFILE
Syntax
SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE 'file_name'
[CHARACTER SET charset_name]
[export_options]
export_options:
[{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
[TERMINATED BY 'string']
[[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
[ESCAPED BY 'char']
]
[LINES
[STARTING BY 'string']
[TERMINATED BY 'string']
]
Contents
Description
SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE writes the resulting rows to a file, and allows the use of column and row terminators to specify a particular output format.
The file must not exist. It cannot be overwritten. A user needs the FILE privilege to run this statement. Also, MariaDB needs permission to write files in the specified location. If the secure_file_priv system variable is set to a non-empty directory name, the file can only be written to that directory.
The CHARACTER SET clause specifies the character set in which the results are to be written. Without the clause, no conversion takes place (the binary character set). In this case, if there are multiple character sets, the output will contain these too, and may not easily be able to be reloaded.
The LOAD DATA INFILE statement complements SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE.
Example
The following example produces a file in the CSV format:
SELECT customer_id, firstname, surname INTO OUTFILE '/exportdata/customers.txt' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' FROM customers;
