Summary of MySQL using LOAD_FILE of 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 of the file.

The following is an example of what I selected from 1 file:

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

Results:

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

| Result |

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

| This text is all that the file contains! |

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

1 example of a database

The following is an example of a query when inserting file contents into the database:

INSERT INTO MyTable (FileId, UserId, MyBlobColumn)

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

In this example, the column MyBlobColumn has one 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;

Results:

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

| MyBlobColumn |

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

| This text is all that the file contains! |

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

If the file does not exist, return NULL:

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

Results:

+--------+

| Result |

+--------+

| NULL |

+--------+