As a MySQL novice, I’ve found myself struggling to fill out data for a pooling system that requires hundreds of entries. Manually entering each piece of data is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Luckily, MySQL provides a solution to automate this process using data from another table. In this post, I’ll share my experience and the steps I took to populate a table based on data from another table.
My scenario involved three tables: gameobject, pool_template, and pool_members. While I could fill out pool_template members by hand, populating the relevant pools in pool_members was a different story altogether. I needed to create a pool_members instance for every entry in gameobject where the ID and ZoneID had specific values (let’s call them Y and Z).
The solution lies in using an INSERT INTO statement with a SELECT clause that fetches the required data from the gameobject table. The basic syntax for this would be:
INSERT INTO `pool_members` (`type`, `spawnId`, `poolSpawnId`, `chance`, `description`)
SELECT ?, gameobject.GUID, ?, ?, ?
FROM gameobject
WHERE gameobject.ID = Y AND gameobject.ZoneID = Z;
Replace the ‘?’ with the actual values you want to insert. This query will create a new entry in pool_members for every matching entry in gameobject.
If you’re new to MySQL like I am, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start. My advice is to break down the problem into smaller parts and focus on one step at a time. You can find plenty of resources online, including tutorials and forums, to help you with your specific use case.
With this approach, I was able to automate the data entry process and save myself a lot of time and effort. I hope this helps you in your own MySQL journey!