How do I locate my new mySQL database where I want it? - mysql

Question

I'm on Windows using mySQL Workbench when I absolutely have to, otherwise ADO.
I'm experienced with Jet databases where you just create your mdb file, put it wherever you want whenever you want, and open the database with an ADO connection string containing the path to the database.
Now I've got to do this wretched mySQL thing ... for some reason I don't understand there's this Data directory where all the databases go and you can't change that when creating the database(?).
So I create my database as a shell (1 junk table to be deleted later, no records) and it's stuck in this worthless Data directory. Now I want to copy/paste this shell to where I really want it, and start working on it through ADO to create my "real" database ... but it doesn't work; my ADO connection string contains the new path and the connection opens with no errors, but all operations only change the copy in the Data directory.
Yes I have searched this topic, and the only "solutions" I see are to change the default Data directory in the ini file ... this seems silly and unworkable; what if I want to create another database and put it somewhere else?
Can someone please shed some light here?

Answer 1

Once you connect to the MySQL database as a user that can create databases, usually the root user after install, you can just write:
CREATE DATABASE my_database;
and that database will be created on the machine that's running the MySQL server process in the datadir that MySQL is using. There are default locations for these things, but you probably won't need to worry about them. You don't need to worry about where the files end up going as the first commenter says.
Here is the information for finding your my.cnf file on Windows. Once you find that file, update your datadir to the location that you want like this:
datadir="C:\New Data\Path"
and then stop your MySQL server and move your files. Restart the MySQL server after you copy all of the files in your current datadir to it. You can find your current datadir with the following command (connected to the server as the root user):
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%datadir%';
Make sure to stop the server before moving your files.
The CREATE TABLE documentation shows that you can create a table in a TABLESPACE that's outside of your datadir. First create a tablespace like the following:
CREATE TABLESPACE my_tablespace ADD DATAFILE 'C:\my_space';
which needs to be a single file if you want to use the InnoDB engine. You can then create tables in that table space by specifying it in your table's creation like:
CREATE TABLE new_table (a INT) TABLESPACE my_tablespace;
I haven't done this before, but it should work.