But there is no simple –csv switch in mysqldump, your weapon of choice for these tasks. So here the command that will allow you to do what you are after:

mysqldump -p -u USER -T DIRECTORY --fields-enclosed-by=\" --fields-terminated-by=, DATABASE

So this is the short version, and here what it all means:

• -p : Asks for a password, as most users have one. If you don’t specify this on a database with a user/password, it will error
• -u USER : Replace USER with your actual username to connect to the database.
• -T DIRECTORY : This creates a tab delimited file. Not what we wanted but it’s the base we need.
• –fields-enclosed-by=\” : Will add ” characters around the fields. This will allow CSV implementations to find everything that fits together. You will need that backslash or it wont run.
• –fields-terminated-by=, : The so much sought after comma. This replaces the tab and puts a comma in its place, which, you guessed it, creates the CSV file.
• DATABASE : Well you know, the thing this is all about…

To actually be able to do it though, you will need the FILE privilege on this database. Armed with this, you should be able to do your CSV exports easy now.

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