Summary of MySQL LOAD_FILE() function method

In MySQL, the LOAD_FILE() function reads a file and returns its contents as a string.

grammar

LOAD_FILE(file_name)

Where file_name is the full path to the file.

Here is an example of me selecting content from a file:

SELECT LOAD_FILE('/data/test.txt') AS Result;

result:

+------------------------------------------+

| Result |

+------------------------------------------+

| This text is all that the file contains! |

+------------------------------------------+

An example of a database

Here is an example of a query that inserts the contents of a file into a database:

INSERT INTO MyTable (FileId, UserId, MyBlobColumn)

VALUES (1, 20, LOAD_FILE('/data/test.txt'));

In this example, the column MyBlobColumn has a BLOB data type (allowing it to store binary data).

Now that it is in the database, we can select it:

SELECT MyBlobColumn

FROM MyTable

WHERE UserId = 20;

result:

+------------------------------------------+

|MyBlobColumn|

+------------------------------------------+

| This text is all that the file contains! |

+------------------------------------------+

If the file does not exist, returns NULL:

SELECT LOAD_FILE('/data/oops.txt') AS Result;

result:

+--------+

| Result |

+--------+

| NULL |

+--------+