Data Import into MySQL

I'm working a job for a guy who's got a rather extensive database of business listings that I need to get into an SQL database. What I'm faced with is how to import that huge chunk of data. He and his partner will reformat it however they need to so I can just pretty much click and import it, but I'm trying to figure out a good way to go about this. Basically, is there an easy way for them to arrange the data in something simple like Excel or Access and I just convert that to a .sql and import it?

Usually if you use a good tool frontend they'll let you import CSV (comma-separated values) data. Sometimes even Excel data. phpMyAdmin supports the former and possibly the latter for MySQL, for example.

Hello,
Please take a look at db conversion tools at http://dbconvert.com
Regards,
Dmitry

If it's any sort of "flat" file why not just read it and insert it via a script. At least this way you can control and/or format the information as you pull it in.

<?php
$filename = "filename.csv"; // FILE TO OPEN - CHANGE AS NEEDED
$fd = fopen($filename, "r");
$contents = fread($fd, filesize($filename));
$deliminator = "\n"; // CHARACTER TO SPLIT LINES - CHANGE AS NEEDED
$splitlines = explode($deliminator, $contents);
$loopcount = count($splitlines);
$var = 0;
for ($i = 0; $i < $loopcount; $i++) {
// 0 - Column 1 Info
// 1 - Column 2 Info
$value = $splitlines[$var];
$value = explode(",", $value);
$var++;
$query = " INSERT INTO tableName
(
column_1,
column_2
)
VALUES
(
'$value[0]',
'$value[1]'
) ";
$result = mysql_query($query);
}
?>

I figured it out, it was just a matter of preping everything just right before hand. Excel and/or OpenOffice Spreadsheet work well for this. You have to remove the headers from the spreadsheet before exporting it to a .CSV file. As ShadowFiend said, phpMyAdmin makes it pretty easy to import, you just have to make sure you've already created the table and that the fields match the columns perfectly.