In this section, we will examine how to import CSV files. There are two possible methods: CSV and CSV using LOAD DATA. The first method is implemented internally by phpMyAdmin and is the recommended one for its simplicity. With the second method, phpMyAdmin receives the file and passes it to MySQL to be loaded; in theory, this method should be faster, but it has more requirements due to MySQL itself.
There are some differences between these two formats. The CSV file format contains data only, so we must already have an existing table in place. This table does not need to have the same structure as the original table (from which the data comes); the Column names dialog enables us to choose which columns are affected in the target table.
Because the table must exist prior to the import, the CSV import dialog is available only from the Import sub-page in the Table view, not in the Database view.