Mysql – How to force the MySQL client to output to stdout or a log file when importing a SQL file

You have the option of setting character sets/collations on the fly:

• character-set-client
• character-set-connection
• character-set-filesystem
• character-set-results
• character-set-server
• collation-connection
• collation-database
• collation-server

While trial-and-error may be necessary, don't go willy-nilly on these variables in /etc/my.cnf. You are better off setting them dynamically during any trial-and-error testing.

To make sure of any corner cases, look at the initial variables of any mysqldump and see if character sets or collations are set in the beginning and reset at the bottom.

In fact, here is a sample for a mysqldump:

/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */;
/*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */;
/*!40103 SET @OLD_TIME_ZONE=@@TIME_ZONE */;
/*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE='+00:00' */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */;
/*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */;
/*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */;

See the variables

• @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT
• @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS
• @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION
• SET NAMES is hardwired to utf8

You could perhaps set these options

• when calling the mysqldump
• place these options in /etc/my.cnf under [mysqldump] group section
• edit these values for existing mysqldumps using perl, awk, etc.

juergen d's answer is of course correct; however, considering your error message, you can also add to your SQL file at the beginning line like:

USE your_database_name;

This should also do the job and let you import under the Workbench.

When you are using mysqldump, the exported file will be saved in the current folder. It doesn't matter under what path it is. Just when importing from command line you need to be at the same folder or specify path to the file. But this isn't the case when you are using visual tool like Workbench, where you need to select the file from folder tree anyway.