Archive for category Python

Convert SQL Server to MySQL

Some time ago, I had to convert a Microsoft SQL Server database to a MySQL database. The main reason was the cost of the SQL Server license for such a small database.

Looking on the web, I found the following open source application:

Name: mssql2mysql
URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mssql2mysql/
Description: mssql2mysql is a python script used to create a SQL dump from a Microsoft SQL server that is ready to use with MySQL. Supports Schema and data dumping, including Primary Keys for each table, allows to dump all data or just a small portion of it.

To be honest, this tool wasn’t working as expected but it was a very good start! 🙂

Below is the list of changes I’ve made:

  • Add support for the bool data type;
  • Add support for the datetime data type;
  • Only convert tables and views of the ‘dbo’ owner;
  • Add the test columnas[6]==True on the primary key;
  • Add support for the uniqueidentifier data type;
  • Add support for the tinyint data type (SQL Server is tinyint unsigned by default, but not in MySQL!);
  • Add support for the default column values;
  • Add support for the bit data type (use tinyint instead of bit, go to this page for more information).

To download the amended script, please click on the following link: mssql2mysql.tar.bz2

This script worked perfectly fine for me. However, please note that my interest was focused on converting the database structure but not the content!

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