I thought it could be useful for those who are using Mac OS X:

/Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/bin/mysql -u root -p database < database.sql

Replace xampp with mamp or other web servers.

For backup purposes, make a BAT file and run this BAT file using Task Scheduler. It will take a backup of the database; just copy the following line and paste in Notepad and then save the .bat file, and run it on your system.

@echo off
for /f "tokens=1" %%i in ('date /t') do set DATE_DOW=%%i
for /f "tokens=2" %%i in ('date /t') do set DATE_DAY=%%i
for /f %%i in ('echo %date_day:/=-%') do set DATE_DAY=%%i
for /f %%i in ('time /t') do set DATE_TIME=%%i
for /f %%i in ('echo %date_time::=-%') do set DATE_TIME=%%i

"C:\Program Files\MySQL\mysql server 5.5\bin\mysqldump" -u username -ppassword mysql>C:/%DATE_DAY%_%DATE_TIME%_database.sql

I'm using Windows 10 with PowerShell 5, and I found almost all "Unix-like" solutions not working for me.

mysql -u[username] [database-name] < my-database.sql

Output:

At line:1 char:31
+ mysql -u[username] [database-name] < my-database.sql
+                               ~
The '<' operator is reserved for future use.
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RedirectionNotSupported

I ends up using this command:

type my-database.sql | mysql -u[username] -h[localhost] -p [database-name]

And it works perfectly, and hopefully it helps.

Thanks to @Francesco Casula's answer, BTW.

To import a database via the terminal

Navigate to folder where the .sql file is located

Then run the below command:

mysql -u database_user_name -p database_name < sql_file_name.sql

It will ask for a password. Enter the database password. It will take a few seconds to import the data into the database.

This line imports the dump file in the local database, under Linux.

mysql -u dbuser -p'password including spaces' dbname < path/to/dump_file.sql

This line imports the dump file in the remote database, under Linux. Note: -P is for the port and is required if the MySQL port is different than the default.

mysql -h dbhost -u dbuser -p'password including spaces' -P 3306 dbname < path/to/dump_file.sql

Note: the password includes spaces and this is the reason of the single quotes. Just change the path style for using the command under Windows (C:\windows\path\dump_file.sql).

The following steps help to upload file.sql to the MySQL database.

Step 1: Upload file.sql.zip to any directory and unzip there
Note: sudo apt-get install unzip : sudo apt-get unzip file.sql.zip
Step 2: Now navigate to that directory. Example: cd /var/www/html

Step 3: mysql -u username -p database-name < file.sql
Enter the password and wait till uploading is completed.

If importing data into a Docker container use the following command. Adjust user(-u), database(-D), port(-P) and host(-h) to fit your configuration.

mysql -u root -D database_name -P 4406 -h localhost --protocol=tcp -p < sample_dump.sql

mysql -u myuser -p mydatabase < mydata.sql

Replace myuser with your MySQL username, mydatabase with the name of your MySQL database, and mydata.sql with the name of your SQL file.
Make sure that the SQL file is properly formatted and does not contain any syntax errors that could cause issues during import.

Using MySQL Secure Shell:

mysqlsh -u <username> -p -h <host> -D <database name> -f dump.sql

If you use XAMPP on the windows, first, you must manually create the database and then run the following commands:

cd C:\xampp\mysql\bin && 
mysql -u YOUR_USERNAME -p YOUR_DATABASE_NAME < PATH_TO_YOUR_SQL_FILE\YOUR_SQL_FILE.sql

And then enter the password

Simple. Just use this command in cmd:

use databasename
\. C:/test/data.mysql

The fastest way

I've used the solution below to import a 100GB database (not a typo) of almost 300 million records in less than 10 hours, so it's safe to say it will rip through the average SQL dump in no time.

First, you should make sure your database is making the most of your hardware - most out-of-the-box SQL installations are set up to be as lightweight (and therefore inefficient) as possible. Assuming your database is using the InnoDB engine (which it is if you are using XAMPP), edit the following variables in your my.ini file:

innodb_buffer_pool_size=8G // Change to 50-75% of your system's RAM, depending on how much you need to keep free
innodb_log_file_size=2G // Change to 25% of the above value
innodb_log_buffer_size=8M

If you're using another database engine then you'll need to find the equivalent configuration options and tune them accordingly.

Once you've made those configuration changes, restart your server and run the following in the command-line:

mysql -u root -e "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS <database_name>; USE <database_name>; \
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0; SET UNIQUE_CHECKS = 0; SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0; \
source <file_name>; SET UNIQUE_CHECKS = 1; SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1; COMMIT;"

Although this uses the mysql CLI tool it's just executing plain MySQL so you can alternatively copy-paste the SQL code from it directly into your database tool's SQL tab (eg. PHPMyAdmin).

You can use:

mysql -u<user> -p<pass> <db> < db.sql

Example:

mysql -uroot -proot db < db.sql

For Windows OS, you can use the below command to import data from an SQL dump.

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.7\bin>mysql -u<> -p<> DBName < filelocation\query.sql

Where -u is the username, and -p is the MySQL password. Then enter your password and wait for data to import.

• Create a database in MySQL.

• Then go to your computer directory C:\xampp\mysql\bin, write cmd in the address bar, and hit Enter.

• Unzip your SQL file

• Then write: mysql -u root -p dbname and press Enter.

• Write: source sql.file. Like Source C:\xampp\htdocs\amarbazarltd\st1159.sql

• Done

In Ubuntu

 mysql -u root -p
 CREATE database dbname;
 use dbname;
 source /home/computername/Downloads/merchantapp.sql
 exit;

In Windows

Download the SQL file and save it in C:\xampp\mysql\bin.

After that, open the command prompt with C:\xampp\mysql\bin:

 C:\xampp\mysql\bin> mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql

If you are importing to your local database server, you can do the following:

mysql -u database_user -p < database_file.sql

For a remote database server do the follwing:

mysql -u database_user -p -h remote_server_url < database_file.sql

Export particular databases:

mysqldump --user=root --host=localhost --port=3306 --password=test -B CCR KIT > ccr_kit_local.sql

This will export CCR and KIT databases...

Import all exported databases to a particular MySQL instance (you have to be where your dump file is):

mysql --user=root --host=localhost --port=3306 --password=test < ccr_kit_local.sql

USE yourdb; // Database name  

SOURCE D:/your folder path/Folder/filetoimport.sql;

1. copy the database file to C:\xampp\mysql\bin

2. open a terminal from the same path

3. type in the terminal

    .\mysql.exe -uroot
   

4. type use DB_NAME; // Change to your DB Name

5. type source DB_FILE.sql;

If you are using MAMP on Mac OS X, this may be helpful:

/applications/MAMP/library/bin/mysql -u MYSQL_USER -p DATABASE_NAME < path/to/database_sql/FILE.sql

MYSQL_USER is root by default.

If your folder has multiple SQL files, and you've installed Git Bash you can use this command to import multiple files:

cd /my-project/data

cat *.sql | /c/xampp/mysql/bin/mysql -u root -p 1234 myProjectDbName

If you are using XAMPP then go to folder xappp → mysql → bin. Open cmd here and paste this:

mysql -u root -p dbname < dbfilename.sql

You can use these steps as easily.

1. Download the SQL file into your "mysql/bin" folder.

2. Open the "mysql/bin" folder using CMD.

3. If not exists required database, then create the database first.

4. Type this in the CMD and run:

   mysql -u <user> -p<password> <dbname> < file.sql

   "file.sql" is an SQL file that you want to insert into the target database. examples: If your "password" is "1234", "user" is "root", and "dbname" is "test":

    mysql -u root -p1234 test < file.sql
   

   If your "password" is null & "user" is "root" & "dbname" is "test"

    mysql -u root test < file.sql
   

5. Check the target data successfully uploaded or not.

This method can be used to upload the large size data using SQL files in the CMD.

Make sure in step 4, if you use that password, insert "-p" as a single word without any spaces.

Most of the answers include > or < characters which is not a proper method for all the cases. I recommend using mysqlimport while you may make the dump file using mysqldump.

These tools will be installed with the mysql service and both are available for backup and restore in a database or multiple databases in MySQL.

Here is the way you could leverage it for importing to the mysql

mysqlimport -u database_admin -p database_name ~/path/to/dump_file.sql

In case you do not have it, please install it via:

sudo apt update sudo apt install mysql-client

In the same way, you make a backup to a dump file as follows:

mysqldump [options] --result-file=dump_file.sql

Duplicate answer

Many of the aforementioned solutions are OS specific and require multiple steps. The best solution will be to use a one line command to create the database, select the database, and import the database, by using the command line parameter -e, which stands for execute, and it allows the user to execute application console related and database management system related commands.

[PATH_TO_MYSQL]\mysql -u YOUR_USER_ID -p -e 'CREATE DATABASE [DATABASE_NAME];USE [DATABASE_NAME];SOURCE [DATABASE_NAME_PATH];'

# USE '/' AS THE PATH SEPARATOR CHARACTER WITHIN THE SOURCE QUERY ON ALL OPERATING SYSTEMS

# (e.g.) 
mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE Theta_FTP;USE Theta_FTP;SOURCE C:/Users/teodo/Desktop/Theta_FTP.sql;"