How to use MySQL with Erlang

First, you'll need to install the MySQL ODBC driver if you haven't already.

sudo aptitude install unixodbc

Check the installation by performing command:

odbcinst ­j

which lists the ODBC's configuration files location.

Now we install the driver we want to use (for the start I was using the sqlite3 ODBC driver, but it was not working with
erlang properly). Let's say mysql:

sudo aptitude install libmyodbc

as we have the ODBC driver for our database, we have to ensure it's installed, by issuing:

odbcinst ­q ­d

Which should give something like

$ odbcinst ­q ­d
[MySQL]

If, however, you get an error such as

odbcinst: SQLGetPrivateProfileString failed with .

dont panic. It just means that the SQL driver was not automatically installed, hence you will have to install it manually.

Adding a driver to the system's configuration

In my case the libmyodbc hasn't installed itself to the /etc/odbcinst.ini, so I had to add that section by hand
(/etc/odbcinst.ini):

[MySQL]
Description     = MySQL ODBC Driver
Driver          = /usr/lib/odbc/libmyodbc.so
Setup           = /usr/lib/odbc/libmyodbc.so
UsageCount      = 1

After which we now '''add a datasource DSN'''

Next, edit the file ~/.odbc.ini and put in the appropriate values

[mysqldb]
Description=Mysql database
Driver=MySQL
Database=test
User=kubek2k
Password=kubek2k
Server=localhost

of course - be sure that the user exists and the user has rights to use it :).
Example

Here's the SQL script I used to create my test database:

CREATE DATABASE `test`;

CREATE TABLE `test`.`test_table`
(
  `id` INTEGER UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `first_name` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL,
  `last_name` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
)
ENGINE = InnoDB;

INSERT INTO `test`.`test_table`
(
  `first_name`,
  `last_name`
)
VALUES
('Matt', 'Williamson'), ('Matt', 'Williamson2'), ('Matt', 'Williamson3');

And here's the code to connect and query in erlang:

application:start(odbc).
ConnString = "DSN=mysqldb".
{ok, Conn} = odbc:connect(ConnString, []).
Results = odbc:sql_query(Conn, "SELECT * FROM test_table").

This is what my interactive session looks like:

arthur@badger:~$ erl
Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.6.3 [source] [smp:2] [async­threads:0] [kernel­
poll:false]

Eshell V5.6.3  (abort with ^G)
1> application:start(odbc).
ok
2> ConnString = "DSN=mysqldb".
"DSN=mysqldb"
3> {ok, Conn} = odbc:connect(ConnString, []).
{ok,<0.40.0>}
4> Results = odbc:sql_query(Conn, "SELECT * FROM test_table").
{selected,["id","first_name","last_name"],
          [{1,"Matt","Williamson"},
           {2,"Matt","Williamson2"},
           {3,"Matt","Williamson3"}]}
5> 
BREAK: (a)bort (c)ontinue (p)roc info (i)nfo (l)oaded
       (v)ersion (k)ill (D)b­tables (d)istribution
a
arthur@badger:~$

That's it folks! Hope you got it well.

© Arthur Buliva