Steps to Import data from different tables in MySQL Workbench

When working with database management systems, there must be many times when you want to copy the data of a table from one database to a similar table of another database.

Many of you will extract (Export) data into a Script file => and bring it to another database, then rename and Import back. Is it true!

This method is not wrong, but sometimes it is a bit time consuming and labor intensive if the amount of data is relatively large.

So, in this article, I will learn with you about another way to perform this operation in the MYSQL WORKBENCH tool.

Instructions for Importing Data from Different Tables

For example, here I have two databases, store and store_copy. In it, each database has a table called products with the same structure.

The problem is that the store.products table in my store database has data, now I want to copy all that data to the store_copy.products table of the store_copy database

Step 1: First we will have to export that data to a file of *.csv format or a *.json file by right-clicking on the table => and selecting Table Data Export Wizard as shown below.

Step 2: You choose which data fields are exported (can select all or some fields) => then click Next to continue.

Step 3:

1. (1) In this next step, you will choose the type of file you want to export.
2. (2) Then click Browse… to select the location to save the file.
3. (3) You name the file (you should put the file name in unsigned).
4. (4) Click Save to save the file.

Step 4: Next, you confirm the choices in Step 3 => then click Next to go to the next step.

Step 5: Continue to click Next to start exporting data to *.csv . file

Step 6: Click Finish to complete the data export (you can see that the Export time is 0.468s and the number of records is 110 records).

Step 7: Next in the store_copy.products table I check, there are no records yet.

Step 8: To import data from the .cvs file into the store.products table, we right-click on that table => and select Table Data Export Wizard.

Step 9: Next step we will select the .cvs file that we exported from the previous step. Then click Next to move to the next step.

Step 10:

1. (1) You choose the table to import data into (the default is the table we choose products)
2. (2) You can choose to create a new table when choosing this option.

Step 11:

1. (1) After selecting the table, we will select the fields in the table to see which fields will be imported data.
2. (2) After selecting the data fields, click Next to continue.

Step 12: In this step, click Next to continue.

Step 13: Continue to click Next after the data is imported.

Step 14: So all records from the file have been imported into the store_copy.products table. Click Finish to complete.

Step 15: Now I go back to check the data in the table and see that the table has full data from the input Import file.

Okay, so in this article, I have learned with you how to Export and Import data from different tables in MySQL database through MySQL Workbench tool.

This will be a nice trick in many cases where we have sample data saved as *.csv or *.json files

Hope the little tips in this article will be useful to you. Goodbye, see you in the next post!

Marvin Fry

Update 29 July 2021