How to rename a MySQL database?

From this blog post by Ilan Hazan:

In MySQL there is no support for database renaming. In order to rename a MySQL database you can do one of the following:

1. Create new database and rename all tables in the old database to be in the new database:

    CREATE database new_db_name;
    RENAME TABLE db_name.table1 TO new_db_name.table1, db_name.table2 TO new_db_name.table2;
    DROP database db_name;
   

2. In Linux shell, use mysqldump to back up the old database, then restore the dumped database under a new name using the MySQL utility. Finally, use the drop database command to drop the old database. This option can perform badly for large database.

    mysqldump -uxxxx -pxxxx -h xxxx db_name > db_name_dump.sql
    mysql -uxxxx -pxxxx -h xxxx -e "CREATE DATABASE new_db_name"
    mysql -uxxxx -pxxxx -h xxxx new_db_name < db_name_dump.sql
    mysql -uxxxx -pxxxx -h xxxx -e "DROP DATABASE db_name"
   

3. Write a simple Linux script (my favorite solution)

    #!/bin/bash
   
    dbuser=xxxx
    dbpass=xxxx
    olddb=xxxx
    newdb=xxxx
   
    mysqlconn="mysql -u $dbuser -p$dbpass -h localhost"
   
    $mysqlconn -e "CREATE DATABASE $newdb"
    params=$($mysqlconn -N -e "SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE table_schema='$olddb'")
   
    for name in $params; do
          $mysqlconn -e "RENAME TABLE $olddb.$name to $newdb.$name";
          echo "Renamed $olddb.$name to $newdb.$name";
    done;
   
    #$mysqlconn -e "DROP DATABASE $olddb"
   

4. If all your tables are MyISAM, you can rename the old database folder name:

   1. Shut down the MySQL server,
   2. Rename the database folder name to the new name,
   3. Start the MySQL server.

MySQL kinda sucks for this. The only solid reliable solution is to use phpMyAdmin.

Login --> click Scheme --> click Operations --> find Rename database to: --> write NewName > click Go.

As simple as that. All permissions are carried over.

I found a very simple solution: Shut down MySQL, rename the database directory and restart. That's all!

It's a bit dangerous if you have SQL code or data referring to the old name. Then you need to change that as well before you restart the application. But I didn't need to do that, but YMV.

Googling gives a few pointers like these two:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67093/how-do-i-quickly-rename-a-mysql-database-change-schema-name

http://www.delphifaq.com/faq/databases/mysql/f574.shtml

I tend to create a new database, and then dump the tables out of the old one, into a .sql file (with mysqldump), edit the file, do some kind of s/old_database/new_database/g and then reimport it into the new db.
Probably not the best way to do it, but it does work.

If you have chance to use a MySQL Management-Tool (e.g. phpMyAdmin) then you can rename it easily as they create the query for you.

In phpMyAdmin they also create each table and insert the data by "INSERT INTO... SELECT * FROM...". So by chaining they copy the data over.

If you can't do this I would recommend to make a dump and re-import the sql-File into a new database.

Good luck!

Regards, Ben.

I used following method to rename the database

1. take backup of the file using mysqldump or any DB tool eg heidiSQL,mysql administrator etc

2. Open back up (eg backupfile.sql) file in some text editor.

3. Search and replace the database name and save file.

4. Restore the edited sql file