Comprehensive MySQL Tutorial: Basics, Data Types, Operators, Functions, and Queries

MySQL is a relational database system that uses SQL (Structured Query Language) as its core language; the article begins by showing how to start the MySQL service on macOS, connect with mysql -uroot -p, and create a database using CREATE DATABASE dbname; followed by USE dbname;.

It then explains the four categories of SQL statements—DDL (e.g., CREATE TABLE, DROP DATABASE), DML (e.g., INSERT INTO, UPDATE, DELETE), DQL (e.g., SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT), and DCL (e.g., GRANT, REVOKE)—with concrete examples and screenshots of query results.

The guide details MySQL data types: numeric types (INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, DOUBLE, BIGINT, BIT), date/time types (YEAR, TIME, DATE, DATETIME, TIMESTAMP) and their formats, and string types (CHAR, VARCHAR, BINARY, VARBINARY, TEXT, BLOB, ENUM, SET). Examples show creating tables with specific column definitions and using attributes such as ZEROFILL, UNSIGNED, and AUTO_INCREMENT.

It lists arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, DIV, %, MOD), comparison operators (=, <>, <=>, <, <=, >, >=, BETWEEN, IS NULL, IN, LIKE, REGEXP), logical operators (NOT, AND, OR, XOR) and bitwise operators (&, |, ^, ~, >>, <<), each illustrated with sample queries and result tables.

Common MySQL functions are grouped into categories: string functions (LOWER, UPPER, CONCAT, LEFT, RIGHT, INSERT, LTRIM, RTRIM, REPEAT, TRIM, SUBSTRING, LPAD, RPAD, STRCMP, REPLACE), numeric functions (ABS, CEIL, FLOOR, MOD, ROUND, TRUNCATE, RAND), date/time functions (NOW, WEEK, YEAR, HOUR, MINUTE, MONTHNAME, CURDATE, CURTIME, UNIX_TIMESTAMP, FROM_UNIXTIME, DATE_FORMAT, DATE_ADD, DATEDIFF), flow control functions (IF, IFNULL, CASE) and miscellaneous functions (VERSION, DATABASE, USER, PASSWORD, MD5, INET_ATON, INET_NTOA). Each function is demonstrated with a short SQL snippet inside ....

Finally, the article shows how to use MySQL’s built‑in help system (e.g., ? contents, ? VARCHAR) to quickly look up syntax, and provides a list of useful resources and links for further learning.