MySQL Cheat Sheet

Posted in Cheat Sheets, May 24, 2005 | 89 comments

The MySQL cheat sheet is designed to act as a reminder and reference sheet, listing useful information about MySQL. It includes a list of the available functions in MySQL, as well as data types. It also includes a list of MySQL functions available in PHP, and a list of useful sample queries to select data from a database. A description of what is on the cheat sheet follows, or if you are impatient, you can go straight to the full size MySQL cheat sheet:

Functions in MySQL

Many developers are completely unaware that MySQL actually has a huge number of functions built in, to do everything from regular expression-based string comparisons to complicated mathematical calculations. The outsides of the cheat sheet list MySQL functions (note: a few of the more unusual and least used functions have not been included due to constraints of space).

MySQL Data Types

Thumbnail highlighting data types section.

MySQL allows for many data types for columns, and it is very easy to forget what constraints there are on these data types. This is especially important when it comes to validation - many developers do not check the length of data before inserting it into a table. This section lists the data types available and their constraints.

MySQL Functions in PHP

Thumbnail highlighting mysql function in PHP.

PHP has a MySQL module and this is used by most PHP developers to connect to, and query, a MySQL database. This section lists the functions available in PHP for connecting to and managing a MySQL database.

Sample Queries

Finally, the cheat sheet includes a short list of sample queries and a brief explanation of each.

So now that you know what it does, please feel free to print out the MySQL cheat sheet:

Please note: If you wish to link to the MySQL cheat sheet from elsewhere, please link to this page so others find the description, rather than linking directly to the sheet.

And finally, if you like the cheat sheets, and want to say thanks, I do have an Amazon Wishlist. Thankyou very much to those who have already hunted it down and sent me something nice - I'm very grateful!

Translations

Spanish / Español

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89 comments (Add Yours)

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Hatem

Saudi Arabia #1: May 24, 2005

Great job as usual !!

Shawn

United States #2: May 24, 2005

NICE, I was directed here by a friend of mine...grreat stuff, thank you so much...the cheatsheets will come inhandy since Im learning to do web stuff. My page is coded sloppy, but I'm learning

Julian

Germany #3: May 24, 2005

Thanks for another great help hanging at the wall beside my desktop...

Jacques Marneweck

Unknown #4: May 25, 2005

Well done. It's good to see that some one is making excellent cheat sheets for reference :)

mysql sucks

Germany #5: May 26, 2005

I strongly recommend not to use those MySQL-internal functions that are not in the SQL-standard, as this will tie you to this specific database and you can't switch to a real database (PostgreSQL, Oracle) once you have grown up.

Ben

United Kingdom #6: May 26, 2005

These are all really handy - I don't need the css one but I've only recently started doing mysql stuff so this will prove very useful indeed.

Thanks for making them.

Bob

Netherlands #7: May 26, 2005

People like 'mysql sucks' always crack me up: "I have never used Mysql and i never will, because it SUCKS!".

Perhaps Mysql isn't the best choice for every problem, but the one who needs to do some growing up is you.

Anyhow, thanks for the cheatsheet. And for providing it as a pdf.

United States #8: May 26, 2005

Many thanks for posting these sheets (php,css,+mysql). I use them a great deal. I hope I can return the favor sometime

Peter

Bulgaria #9: May 31, 2005

I would be great to have a PostgreSQL cheat-sheet as well. Could you please prepare one at convenient for you time and post it on www.postgresql.org site? I think it will benefit you a lot in terms of popularity.

United Kingdom #10: June 2, 2005

Very nice cheatsheet. It will come in well handy for me as I'm just getting to grips with this whole dynamic web stuff! Thanks again.

KevinN

Philippines #11: June 7, 2005

The Mysql pdf cheat sheet does not show up as crisp as the other cheat sheets. An image perhaps?

Dave Child

United Kingdom #12: June 7, 2005

There is a problem with the MySQL PDF but I haven't been able to work out what it is yet. I'll have a new version up as soon as I've found a solution though.

hzane

United States #13: June 12, 2005

thanks man and nice work.

Konstantin

Finland #14: June 14, 2005

Keep them coming. Great job!

Joen

Norway #15: June 19, 2005

Excellent work on all of these cheat sheets. I'd like to add a suggestion: UNIX File Permissions Cheat Sheet :)

James

United Kingdom #16: June 22, 2005

Thanks for another excellent cheat sheet to hang beside the other three :D

Glancing at the MySQL sheet I just noticed a small typo: ' Return **maxium** value in column as "alias" '

My cheatsheet wishlist: Perl, PostgreSQL

Dave

United Kingdom #17: June 30, 2005

Heh nice, another bookmarked page!

Ahmed

Germany #18: July 5, 2005

Please, make a cheat sheet for JavaScript too.

Thanks in advanced.

Pavel Prostredni

Czech Republic #19: July 7, 2005

Great!
You have a link at:

http://www.businessweek.cz/mod_rewrite-mysql-php-css-tahaky-prehledy.html

I´m looking forward to next cheat sheets :)
Bye.

Luis Pirir

Guatemala #20: July 30, 2005

That's Good. Thanks men.

The Cheat Sheet group is wonderfull.

Jace

Germany #21: August 3, 2005

Great sheet. Thanks for your work. Could you add query examples (one or two would be enough) for insert, delete and update statements? I think this is the only thing still missing.

Piku

Romania #22: September 5, 2005

Very very useful. Also PHP Sheet is very useful.

Miguel

Venezuela #23: September 8, 2005

This cheat sheet is great shit, Thanks man!!!

Pete Freitag

United States #24: September 8, 2005

Peter, I have created a postgresql cheat sheet here: http://www.petefreitag.com/cheatsheets/postgresql/

Wendy

United States #25: September 18, 2005

Awesome, I haven't look at the cheat sheet yet, but I figure out that it will come in handy when I need it. Anyway, I know MySql for quite some times, and as a lead developer in my company, I made a big decision by choosing MySql as out main database backend for our commercial product. So this cheat sheet will be really usefull for the other programmer, due to their limited knowedge about the power of MySql. I believe this will help us in maximizing MySql during the development proccess.

Thanks again fof spending your precious time in building this cheat sheet. May you be blessed :)

Sincerely,
Wendy Novianto

sebah

Poland #26: October 9, 2005

helpful stuff, but as 'mysql sucks' said: eg postgresql is better than mysql. Using Pg and all of its capabilities may boost performance of the app.

Alex Zan

Russian Federation #27: November 9, 2005

This cheat sheet is really cool!

mic

Israel #28: November 30, 2005

Thanks. It's great. I used to do my own cheatsheets for unix/linux/shell stuff and take them with me from place to place (written in excel), with examples so i remeber how to use the commands. This is much nicer. Thank you :-)

Indoxyl Designs

Canada #29: April 14, 2006

Great cheat-sheet!

Arup Garai

India #30: May 5, 2006

this is to much use full for beginer and as well as who is professional

John Hunt

United Kingdom #31: May 8, 2006

You rock! Useful stuff to print out and put on my desk divider!!

zafar

Canada #32: July 2, 2006

great job.
Thanks

Brandon

United States #33: July 11, 2006

Dave..

Thanks so much for the cheat sheets! Learning php & MySQL is a pretty daunting task for the beginner. This is making it much easier!

Grace

United States #34: July 19, 2006

Thank you so much...this is a great tip sheet when creating queries.

Nomo Takanori

Japan #35: August 21, 2006

This is so magical. I like very much yes. It is very much good.

81403

Slovakia #36: August 31, 2006

excellent job with all the cheat sheets!
well, except for one thing - why are some of them in some kind of bitmap format even though they are pdf-s?

Rolo

Unknown #37: September 6, 2006

Thanks for this site. Its very in"site"full. Sorry for the pun. I found the cheat sheets very useful in addition to the information you have provided. Thanks for the information.

Kamran

Pakistan #38: October 27, 2006

Always nice to have free and quality material :) thanks a lot for that!

Jochen

Germany #39: October 29, 2006

Hi,

currently I am learning programming.
I found techcheatsheets.com and browsed the site.
This happenend from time to time.
I bought some books and read them.
I worked through tutorials.

These one page- quick guides of you are the best thing ever!
Thanks so much for making this public and for free!

Regards Jochen

James

United Kingdom #40: November 11, 2006

I htink the syntax for INSERTS and UPDATES and DDL would have been more useful that SELECT samples.

Andy Wright

United Kingdom #41: November 17, 2006

RE: Comment 12 (above).
I think you have a transparency issue (perhaps a big transparent box above the text?). The text of this cheat sheet has been flattened (converted to outlines) and transparency is the usual cause of this.

Delete ANYTHING that isn't 100% opaque and try distilling again...

HTH

PS. These cheat sheets are AWESOME--thank you very much! :)

yasar -- uk

United Kingdom #42: December 12, 2006

cool cool cool dnt knw anything yet but ill use it in future

AngryApe

United Kingdom #43: December 14, 2006

Came here via digg. Good stuff, cheers :)

Phatphreak

Unknown #44: December 14, 2006

Very informative

Jason

Netherlands #45: December 14, 2006

Too bad it's not what I hoped for. It's the less used queries you forget the syntax of (insert, delete, etc) and this info is not on your sheet. Guess a difference in priorities, good job anyways!

Dubya

United States #46: December 14, 2006

Nice collection of cheat sheets. I've bookmarked it and will be back when I need assistance.

Anonymous

United States #47: December 14, 2006

what about "show variables like '%max%'"

AngryApe

United States #48: December 14, 2006

That is nice, thanks, very useful

mysql guy

China #49: December 15, 2006

learn something new everyday!

Anthony Ettinger

Unknown #50: December 16, 2006

Did it again ILJD!

Is there a generilized SQL cheatsheet for joins and other more complex statements?

Chris

New Zealand #51: December 19, 2006

Would have been nice to have UPDATE and INSERT examples included :)

brant

United States #52: February 1, 2007

Absolutely the best guide. I just learned commands i wasn't even aware of.

Christian Nally

Unknown #53: February 27, 2007

Great Cheatsheet. I'd like it even more if it had 1 delete, 1 insert possibly at the expense of a couple of those selects. But I'm downloading it and using it anyway. ;-)

Chris Charlton

Unknown #54: March 27, 2007

Perfecto!

Matt MacDougall

Unknown #55: May 26, 2007

Thanks for the cheatsheet! I encourage you to make updates as well. Or for MySQL in particular, maybe a separate sheet about Stored Programs and Views.

-Matt

Gabe

United States #56: August 28, 2007

I love your cheat sheets, they are terrific. Is it possible to put some sample insert, delete, and update queries in the list? Love it none-the-less !!!

David

Unknown #57: September 20, 2007

These sheets are a big help for those of us juggling a lot of stuff. Thanks for putting them together!

Muhammad Khawar

Australia #58: September 21, 2007

Nice work! Thanks.

Katalog stron

Unknown #59: September 25, 2007

I love mysql chat, Good Work..

Warren M

United Kingdom #60: October 3, 2007

Wow, another great cheat sheet. Thankyou!

Herison

Indonesia #61: October 3, 2007

I like this cheat sheets, they are good.
Great jobs !

Thanks.

rhen

Australia #62: October 6, 2007

so good even if it is a new program for me

stabby

Unknown #63: October 8, 2007

you rock!

arthur white

United States #64: October 29, 2007

to Msql sucks to each his own maybe it is not the best but it is a place to start and maybe it fits the app which it is being used for but no reason to completely run it into the ground. Just because you cannt use it doesnt mean some of us other can not.

newbie Arthur White

Vladimir Dzhuvinov

Bulgaria #65: November 17, 2007

All on one page, this is fantastic!!!

10x!

Thank You ilovejackdaniels.com

Unknown #66: November 20, 2007

Thank's for the cheat sheet. I've already click your adsense many times for payment.

Suggestion for next cheat sheet:
make it more complete by giving shorts description below the context, we still accept if page amount between 10 to 30 pages.

Suresh

India #67: November 20, 2007

Great stuff...
it saves lot of digging work..
Good work..
Thanks a lot..

feelinglucky

China #68: November 27, 2007

great work, and i translated into chinese:

PDF format: http://www.gracecode.com/upload/2007_11_28/1196228303.pdf
ZIP format(includes PNG and PDF):http://www.gracecode.com/upload/2007_11_28/1196228319.zip
PNG format: http://photo14.yupoo.com/20071127/131755_496400892_mylnymzf.jpg
My blog:http://www.gracecode.com/Archive/Display/257

Dale

United States #69: November 27, 2007

Thanks! just starting to learn MySQL and PHP, this should be very helpful!

Danny Coulombe

Canada #70: November 28, 2007

Really! really!!!! nice work dude!

I was looking for a MySQL reference, but nothing so perfect like that! Thank you man! I love you!

(sorry for my bad english) ;)

I've bookmark your site, I will add a link on my site, you deserve it!!

PSREDDY

Australia #71: December 13, 2007

Simply excellent work. Requesting to add online bookmark like del.icio.us etc.,

praca poznań

Poland #72: December 18, 2007

Very useful.
Thanks a lot, great job.
Greetings.

Abhit Nigam

Unknown #73: December 18, 2007

Thanksssssssssssssss

London jobs

United Kingdom #74: January 1, 2008

Hi, Great Cheatsheet. I'd like it even more if it had 1 delete, 1 insert possibly at the expense of a couple of those selects. But I'm downloading it and using it anyway.

Christopher Brown

United Kingdom #75: January 1, 2008

Hello, to Msql sucks to each his own maybe it is not the best but it is a place to start and maybe it fits the app which it is being used for but no reason to completely run it into the ground. Just because you cannt use it doesnt mean some of us other can not.

jive

Unknown #76: January 4, 2008

Any chance for another version that has mysqli_ functions?

Londynek Praca

United Kingdom #77: January 17, 2008

Hello, my name is Praca.
Great sheet. Thanks for your work. Could you add query examples (one or two would be enough) for insert, delete and update statements? I think this is the only thing still missing.

forum kia

Poland #78: February 14, 2008

Great sheet. Thanks for your work.

Londynek

Poland #79: February 14, 2008

Thank you! Very nice and interesting article.

baliwebdesigner

Australia #80: February 18, 2008

i download almost all of files in cheat sheet section :) awsome list

Mehmet

Germany #81: February 24, 2008

Good Work..would be nice to add triggers and functions since they are now available in version 5.x

Greetings