Set password error in MySQL

Question

I am trying to reset my root password using following command:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('test');

and it gives me following error:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'PASSWORD('test')' at line 1

Please let me know what is it that I am doing wrong here.

Answer 1

I know it is old but it can help.

I hade this error when i used PASSWORD() function:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'myuser@localhost' = PASSWORD('my_new_password');

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'PASSWORD('basket8')' at line 1

Because in MySQL 5.7 and later it is not necessary to use the PASSWORD() function:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'myuser'@'localhost' = 'my_new_password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

Answer 2

You do not need to quote the user name and it should be as

mysql> set password for root@'localhost' = password('test');
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> flush privileges ;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

The other way of re-setting the password is Login to mysql as root and then update the mysql database User table

abhik@-N4010:~$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 

mysql> use mysql
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
mysql> update user set Password = password('test') where host='localhost' and User='root';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

mysql> flush privileges ;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)