# to connect to the mysqld server on localhost as user root
> /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -h localhost -u root -p
> Password: *********

# to disconnect from the server
> QUIT

# to view all databases on the server
> SHOW databases;

# to create a database called 'pet'
> CREATE DATABASE pet;

# to grant access privileges to a database to a user
> GRANT ALL ON pet.* TO gjohnson IDENTIFIED BY 'berries';
> GRANT ALL ON pet.* TO gjohnson@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'berries';

# to select a database called 'pet' for use
> USE pet;

# to view all tables in the selected database
> SHOW tables;

# to create a table in the selected database
# NOTE: some common data types are INT, REAL, CHAR, VARCHAR, DATE, BLOB
> CREATE TABLE table_name (field_name type, field_name type, ...);

# to view the contents of a table
> DESCRIBE table_name;

# to load the 'pet' table with data from a text file called 'pet.txt'
# NOTE: each row in the text file should contain all the values
#       in each row of the table, separated by tabs or linefeeds.
#       \N should be used for NULL values. 
> LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'pet.txt' INTO table pet;

# to insert a row into the 'pet' table
> INSERT INTO pet 
-> VALUES ('Puffball', 'Diane', 'hamster', 'f', '1999-03-30', NULL);

# to update a row in the 'pet' table
> UPDATE pet SET birth = '1989-08-31' WHERE name = 'Bowser';

# to select all columns and rows from the 'pet' table
> SELECT * FROM pet;

# to select more specifically
> SELECT col1 [, col2, col3, ...]
-> FROM which_table
-> WHERE conditions_to_satisfy;

# to select only distinct values
> SELECT DISTINCT owner FROM pet;

# to sort output in ascending order (default)
> SELECT name, birth FROM pet ORDER BY birth;

# to sort output in ascending order (default)
> SELECT name, birth FROM pet ORDER BY birth DESC;

# to sort on multiple columns (in descending order)
> SELECT name, species, birth FROM pet ORDER BY species, birth DESC;