A.7.2.4 SQL Output Dialogue

SQL table writing dialogue

If you want to write a table to an SQL database, you can use a specialised dialogue to specify the table destination by clicking the SQL Table button in the Save Table window.

This provides you with a list of fields to fill in which define the new table to write, as follows:

Protocol

The name of the appropriate JDBC sub-protocol. This is defined by the JDBC driver that you are using, and is for instance "mysql" for MySQL's Connector/J driver or "postgresql" for PostgreSQL's JDBC driver.

Host

The hostname of the machine on which the database resides (may be "localhost" if the database is local).

Database name

The name of the database.

New table name

The name of a new table to write into the given database. Subject to user privileges, this will overwrite any existing table in the database which has the same name, so should be used with care.

User name

The username under which you wish to access the database. This is not strictly necessary if there is no access control for the database in question.

Password

The password for the given username. Again, whether this is necessary depends on the access policy of the database.

Write Mode

Options for writing the table to the database. Choose one of:

create

A new table is created for the output. If one with the given name already exists, an error results.

dropcreate

A new table is created for the output. If one with the given name already exists, it is dropped first.

append

The results are appended to an existing table with the given name. If the table has the wrong number or types of columns, an error results.

There are a number of criteria which must be satisfied for SQL access to work within TOPCAT (installation of appropriate drivers and so on) - see the section on JDBC configuration. If you don't take these steps, this dialogue may be inaccessible.