txt >> mysql

I have saved a bunch of plain text files of information about an OS that is like a "help file" and I was curious about whether or not I could dump these plain txt file into a mysql database with some sort of commands to strip unallowed spaces and stuff and organize it in a searchable fashon? Maybe a script or something? Anyone have any ideas about this?

[BandC]

This will heavily depend on what the content and the format of the text in the files. It may be easy or it may be hard (time consuming). MySQL has import from text file feature but you need to tell it what the delimiter characters and the columns are etc. In any case, I think you can import them into MySQL but you may have to do quite a bit of work to get the files to the format suited for a (useful) import.

[Daverz]

Probably what you want is some kind of full-text search engine:

http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=full-...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Thanks BandC, I know it will be quit envolved but I should learn alot in the process. I wll look these examples over at freshmeat and post back any progress.

[BandC]

No problem. You can also check out this:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/mysqlimport.html

[Shakes]

I know Oracle has SQL*Loader that can aid in loading things from text files into tables and Sybase has BCP for similar purposes. I assume MySQL must have some equivalent funtionality since it allows command line access. It might be worth researching the equivalent tool because that would work well with a script.

Edit: In fact the post MySQLimport mentioned above looks suspiciously similar. Sorry