Question

How would I Export tables specifying only certain fields?

I am using mysql 5.0 – using either a sql command or mysqldump.

My table is X, and the fields I want to export are A,B,C

Answer 1

SELECT A,B,C FROM X INTO OUTFILE 'file name'; 

You need the FILE privilege to do this, and it won’t overwrite files.

INTO OUTFILE has a bunch of options to it as well, such as FIELDS ENCLOSED BY, FIELDS ESCAPED BY, etc… that you may want to look up in the manual.

To produce a CSV file, you would do something like:

SELECT A,B,C INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/result.txt' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY ''' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' FROM X; 

To load the data back in from the file, use the LOAD DATA INFILE command with the same options you used to dump it out. For the CSV format above, that would be

LOAD DATA INFILE '/tmp/result.txt' INTO TABLE X FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY ''' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';