Question

I’ve just downloaded a bunch of text files from data.gov, and there are fields in the text file that I really don’t need.

Is there a way to import columns [1,3] and leave the rest?

I figure I’ll import using ‘load data in file’, but didn’t see anything on the mysql page as to how to only import certain columns.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/load-data.html

The fields are delimited by ^.
Just so I’m clear, if a line in the txt file is

00111^first column entry^second column entry^this would be the 3rd column

I am trying to get my mysql table to contain

first column entry | this would be the 3rd column

Answer 1

You could always create a table with a dummy column(s) which you drop after loading the file (assuming you don’t have to load the file very often).

Something like this:

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE '/path/to/file' INTO TABLE table_name
FIELDS TERMINATED BY '^' (dummy_column1, column1, dummy_column2, column2);
ALTER TABLE table_name DROP dummy_column1;
ALTER TABLE table_name DROP dummy_column2;