batch files

[falcon_q3]

Call me thick but i'm just doing an assignment for college (so yes i've been taught absolutley nothing about using mysql. I have created a .dat file and placed it in c:\mysql\bin
How can I get mysql to run this file to populate a database with the tables/info/constraints that this file contains? I have tried following the manual but the:
shell> mysql -h host -u user -p < batch-file
Enter password: ********
clearly isn't working for me.
If my directory for mysql is c:\mysql\bin, host is 'alans', user is alan, my database is 'test1' and my batch file is 'dbsetup.dat'then what do I LITERALY type at the dos prompt?(forget any confusing and meaningless syntax example like the example above)
Can you (preferably) run this file while mysql is running?
Cheers - FAlCLITERALY

[nicc777]

First of all, I don't know how your data file looks like, so I will give solutions for two scenarios:

Scenario 1 :
You have DATA in a text file, similar to CSV.

Example: The Unix passwd file

Solution: Use the mysqlimport utility.

Documentation: http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/mysqlimport.html AND http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/LOAD_DATA.html

Scenario 2 :
You have SQL Statements in a data file.

Example: A data file created by mysqldump

Solution: Log on to MySQL and use:

mysql> \. /path/to/sqldatafile/filename.sql

Other References
MySQL Command Line Options

As this is another of them home work scenario's, I belief the aim of the exercise was to teach you something, and the only way you will learn is to study the documentation. Use the references here as a starting point, and then ask specifics.

Cheers & Have Fun...