Sometimes referred to as an “SQL Dump”, SQL files are a text based format. An SQL file is a list of SQL commands that create and fill the tables in a database system. A dump for an example table could look like this:
Example Table: |
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SQL Dump: |
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS phones; CREATE TABLE phones(ID INT, Name TEXT, Thickness FLOAT); INSERT INTO phones(ID,Name,Thickness) VALUES(1,'iPhone 3GS',12.3); INSERT INTO phones(ID,Name,Thickness) VALUES(2,'iPhone 4',9.3); |
As you can see from the example, an SQL dump consists of three kinds of statements:
When exporting to SQL, you can choose not to include the CREATE TABLE statements. This is useful when you already have the necessary table structure on the server. The SQL file will then only contain the data inside the tables. If you choose this option, you must ensure that the tables on the server have the same field names as the tables in the Access database.
Similarly, if you want to export only the table structure, you can choose to not export the data (INSERT statements).
An SQL file can contain multiple tables. It is therfore very convenient for storing entire databases.
Since the SQL language is not consistent among different database systems, MDB Viewer allows to export SQL dumps in different “flavors”. See the following sections for database-specific information: