Question

I’m trying to convert timestamps on the fly when importing a csv file into mysql from string to datetime data type. But I am getting a #1411 - Incorrect datetime value: '2007-03-30 16:01:15' for function str_to_date error.

The SQL:

load data infile 'C:/ProgramData/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.5/data/testfile.csv'
into table test
fields terminated by ','
lines terminated by '\n'
(date, col1,col2,col3,col4)
SET
date = str_to_date(date,'%Y.%m.%d %H:%i:%s.%f');

All rows in the .csv are formated like this:

2007.03.30 16:01:15.901,117.53,117.55,35600000,43700000

I’ve applied

SELECT str_to_date(date,'%Y.%m.%d %H:%i:%s.%f') FROM test

to sample data that was already stored in mysql, it did work.

The target row date is set to DATETIME.

Answer 1

You need to go via a user variable. As the manual says:

The column list can contain either column names or user variables. With user variables, the SET clause enables you to perform transformations on their values before assigning the result to columns.

User variables in the SET clause can be used in several ways. The following example uses the first input column directly for the value of t1.column1, and assigns the second input column to a user variable that is subjected to a division operation before being used for the value of t1.column2:

LOAD DATA INFILE 'file.txt'
  INTO TABLE t1
  (column1, @var1)
  SET column2 = @var1/100;

In your case:

LOAD DATA INFILE 'C:/ProgramData/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.5/data/testfile.csv'
  INTO TABLE test
  FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
  LINES  TERMINATED BY '\n'
  (@date, col1, col2, col3, col4)
  SET date = STR_TO_DATE(@date, '%Y.%m.%d %H:%i:%s.%f');