Learn How To Connect to MySQL from an SQL Client

If you are working with a MySQL database as part of your project, you’ll probably need to add or edit data. We recommend using an SQL client to do so. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to connect to your MySQL database using an SQL client.

What You’ll Need

• An existing MySQL database
• An SQL Client (we recommend Arctype)

Getting your MySQL Credentials

In order to connect to your database, you’ll need to get your MySQL credentials. These include:

• Host/IP: If you’re running a local MySQL server, this will likely be localhost or 127.0.0.1. If your MySQL database is not hosted on your local network, you’ll need the public ip address/hostname of the server on which it is hosted. One way to do this is to run SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable_name = 'hostname' from your MySQL server’s command line
• Port: This will almost always be 3306 (default). You can check by running SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable_name = ‘port’
• Database: You’ll need the name of the database schema on your server that contains your data.
• User and Password: You’ll need credentials for a user with privileges on your database schema.

Connecting to your MySQL Database

For this guide, we’ll be using Arctype, where you can simply click Add a new data source or Add connection and choose ‘MySQL’ to begin:

Next, enter your credentials that we gathered above:

Once you’re connected, you can easily interact with your MySQL data: