MySQL Database Extractor

Extract MySQL database tables to text-readable formats for LLM-based content synthesis.

Quick Start

# Extract all tables to CSV (default)
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:password@localhost:3306/mydb

# Extract to JSON
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:password@localhost/mydb -f json

# Extract to Markdown (best for LLM context)
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://root:secret@localhost/course_db -f markdown

# All formats with schema documentation
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:pass@host/db -f all --schema -o ./output

Connection String Format

mysql://[user[:password]@]host[:port]/database

Examples:

mysql://root:password@localhost:3306/mydb - Full format
mysql://root@localhost/mydb - No password (prompts or uses empty)
mysql://user:pass@db.example.com/production - Remote host

Output Formats

Format	Best For	File Extension
CSV	Data analysis, spreadsheets, pandas	`.csv`
JSON	Structured processing, APIs	`.json`
Markdown	LLM context, human reading	`.md`

Common Workflows

Course Material Extraction

# Extract course DB with schema docs for context
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://root:pass@localhost/course_db -f markdown --schema -o ./course_content

Selective Table Extraction

# Only specific tables
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:pass@host/db --tables users,posts,comments

# Exclude system tables
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:pass@host/db --exclude migrations,logs

Large Database Handling

# Limit markdown rows for large tables
python scripts/db_extract.py mysql://user:pass@host/db -f markdown --max-rows 50

CLI Reference

python scripts/db_extract.py CONNECTION [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  CONNECTION            MySQL connection string: mysql://user:pass@host:port/database

Options:
  -o, --output DIR      Output directory (default: ./extracted)
  -f, --format FORMAT   csv|json|markdown|all (default: csv)
  --tables TABLES       Comma-separated table list
  --exclude TABLES      Tables to skip
  --schema              Include _schema.md documentation
  --max-rows N          Row limit for markdown (default: 100)
  --charset CHARSET     Character set (default: utf8mb4)
  --timeout SECONDS     Connection timeout (default: 30)
  -q, --quiet           Suppress progress output

Output Structure

output/
├── _schema.md          # Schema documentation (if --schema)
├── csv/                # (if format=all)
│   ├── table1.csv
│   └── table2.csv
├── json/
│   └── ...
└── markdown/
    └── ...

Single format outputs files directly to output directory without subdirectories.

Dependencies

Python 3.8+
mysql-connector-python

pip install mysql-connector-python

Filtered System Databases

The following are automatically excluded from extraction:

mysql
information_schema
performance_schema
sys

db-extractor-mysql