connecting to MySQL from the command line

Question

How can you connect to MySQL from the command line in a Mac? (i.e. show me the code)

I'm doing a PHP/SQL tutorial, but it starts by assuming you're already in MySQL.

Answer 1

See here http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/connecting.html

mysql -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD -h HOSTNAMEORIP DATABASENAME 

The options above means:

-u: username
-p: password (**no space between -p and the password text**)
-h: host
last one is name of the database that you wanted to connect. 

Look into the link, it's detailed there!

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As already mentioned by Rick, you can avoid passing the password as the part of the command by not passing the password like this:

mysql -u USERNAME -h HOSTNAMEORIP DATABASENAME -p

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People editing this answer: PLEASE DONOT ADD A SPACE between -p and PASSWORD

Answer 2

Best practice would be to mysql -u root -p. Then MySQL will prompt for password after you hit enter.