Database dump

For information on obtaining the Wikipedia database, see Wikipedia:Database download.

A database dump contains a record of the table structure and/or the data from a database and is usually in the form of a list of SQL statements. A database dump is most often used for backing up a database so that its contents can be restored in the event of data loss. Corrupted databases can often be recovered by analysis of the dump. Database dumps are often published by free software and free content projects, to allow reuse or forking of the database.

Example

-- Database
CREATE DATABASE 'example';
USE 'example';
 
-- Table structure for table 'users'
CREATE TABLE 'users' (
  'id' int(8) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  'username' varchar(16) NOT NULL,
  'password' varchar(16) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY ('id')
);
 
-- Data for table 'users'
INSERT INTO 'users' VALUES (1,'alice','secret'),(2,'bob','secret');

See also

• Core dump
• Databases
• Database management system

References

External links

• mysqldump — A Database Backup Program
• PostgreSQL dump backup methods, for PostgreSQL databases.