Importing Structure and Data - Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.1 for Effective MySQL Management - page 143

For Lines terminated by , recent versions of phpMyAdmin offer the auto choice,
which should be tried first as it detects the end-of-line character automatically.
We can also specify manually which characters terminate the lines. The usual
choice is \n for UNIX-based systems, \r\n for DOS or Windows systems, and \r for
Mac-based system (up to Mac OS 9). If in doubt, we can use a hexadecimal file editor
on our client computer (not part of phpMyAdmin) to examine the exact codes.
By default, phpMyAdmin expects a CSV file with the same number of fields and
the same field order as the target table. But this can be changed by entering a
comma-separated list of column names in Column names , respecting the source
file format. For example, let's say our source file contains only the author ID and the
author name information:
"1","John Smith"
"2","Maria Sunshine"
We'd have to put id , name in Column names to match the source file.
When we click Go , the import is executed and we get a confirmation. We might also
see the actual INSERT queries generated if the total size of the file is not too big.
Import has been successfully finished, 2 queries executed.
INSERT INTO `author` VALUES ( '1', 'John Smith', '+01 445 789-1234'
)# 1 row(s) affected.
INSERT INTO `author` VALUES ('2', 'Maria Sunshine', '333-3333'
)# 1 row(s) affected.
CSV using LOAD DATA
With this method, phpMyAdmin relies on the server's LOAD DATA INFILE or LOAD
DATA LOCAL INFILE mechanisms to do the actual import, instead of processing the
data internally. These statements are the fastest way for importing text in MySQL.
They cause MySQL to start a read operation either from a file located on the MySQL
server ( LOAD DATA INFILE ) or from another place ( LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE ),
which in this context, is always the web server's file system. If the MySQL server
is located on a computer other than the web server, we won't be able to use the
LOAD DATA INFILE mechanism.
Requirements
Relying on the MySQL server has some consequences. Using LOAD DATA INFILE
requires that the logged-in user possess a global FILE privilege. Also, the file itself
must be readable by the MySQL server's process.