What is mysql2?
The mysql2 npm package is a fast and efficient MySQL client for Node.js that provides an easy-to-use API for interacting with MySQL databases. It supports promises and async/await, connection pooling, prepared statements, and more.
What are mysql2's main functionalities?
Basic Connection
This feature allows you to create a basic connection to a MySQL database and execute a query.
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const connection = mysql.createConnection({ host: 'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test' });
connection.query('SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = "Page"', function(err, results) { console.log(results); });
connection.end();
Promise Wrapper
This feature provides a promise-based API for working with MySQL, which allows for the use of async/await for better asynchronous control flow.
const mysql = require('mysql2/promise');
async function queryDatabase() {
const connection = await mysql.createConnection({ host: 'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test' });
const [rows, fields] = await connection.execute('SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = ?', ['Page']);
console.log(rows);
connection.end();
}
queryDatabase();
Connection Pooling
This feature allows you to create a pool of connections that can be reused, which is more efficient than creating a new connection for every query.
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const pool = mysql.createPool({ host: 'localhost', user: 'root', password: 'root', database: 'test', waitForConnections: true, connectionLimit: 10, queueLimit: 0 });
pool.query('SELECT * FROM `table`', function(err, results, fields) { console.log(results); });
pool.end();
Prepared Statements
This feature allows you to use prepared statements, which can improve performance and security by pre-compiling SQL queries and avoiding SQL injection.
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const connection = mysql.createConnection({ host: 'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test' });
const statement = connection.prepare('SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `id` = ?');
statement.execute([1], function(err, results) { console.log(results); });
statement.close();
connection.end();
Other packages similar to mysql2
mysql
The 'mysql' package is the original MySQL client for Node.js. It is similar to mysql2 but does not support promises natively, which means you would need to use a wrapper or callbacks for asynchronous operations.
mariadb
The 'mariadb' package is a Node.js client specifically designed for MariaDB databases. It is API-compatible with mysql2 but includes additional features and optimizations for MariaDB.
knex
Knex.js is a SQL query builder for Node.js that supports multiple database systems, including MySQL. It provides a more abstract way to build queries and can be used with mysql2 as the underlying database driver.
sequelize
Sequelize is an ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) library for Node.js. It provides a higher-level abstraction for database interactions and supports MySQL among other databases. Unlike mysql2, Sequelize allows you to work with data as objects and automatically handles the SQL generation.
Node MySQL 2
![License](https://img.shields.io/npm/l/mysql2.svg?maxAge=2592000)
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MySQL client for Node.js with focus on performance. Supports prepared statements, non-utf8 encodings, binary log protocol, compression, ssl much more
Table of contents
History and Why MySQL2
MySQL2 project is a continuation of MySQL-Native. Protocol parser code was rewritten from scratch and api changed to match popular mysqljs/mysql. MySQL2 team is working together with mysqljs/mysql team to factor out shared code and move it under mysqljs organisation.
MySQL2 is mostly API compatible with mysqljs and supports majority of features. MySQL2 also offers these additional features
Installation
MySQL2 is free from native bindings and can be installed on Linux, Mac OS or Windows without any issues.
npm install --save mysql2
First Query
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const connection = mysql.createConnection({
host: 'localhost',
user: 'root',
database: 'test'
});
connection.query(
'SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = "Page" AND `age` > 45',
function(err, results, fields) {
console.log(results);
console.log(fields);
}
);
connection.query(
'SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = ? AND `age` > ?',
['Page', 45],
function(err, results) {
console.log(results);
}
);
Using Prepared Statements
With MySQL2 you also get the prepared statements. With prepared statements MySQL doesn't have to prepare plan for same query everytime, this results in better performance. If you don't know why they are important, please check these discussions
MySQL provides execute
helper which will prepare and query the statement. You can also manually prepare / unprepare statement with prepare
/ unprepare
methods.
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const connection = mysql.createConnection({
host: 'localhost',
user: 'root',
database: 'test'
});
connection.execute(
'SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = ? AND `age` > ?',
['Rick C-137', 53],
function(err, results, fields) {
console.log(results);
console.log(fields);
}
);
Using connection pools
Connection pools help reduce the time spent connecting to the MySQL server by reusing a previous connection, leaving them open instead of closing when you are done with them.
This improves the latency of queries as you avoid all of the overhead that comes with establishing a new connection.
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const pool = mysql.createPool({
host: 'localhost',
user: 'root',
database: 'test',
waitForConnections: true,
connectionLimit: 10,
maxIdle: 10,
idleTimeout: 60000,
queueLimit: 0
});
The pool does not create all connections upfront but creates them on demand until the connection limit is reached.
You can use the pool in the same way as connections (using pool.query()
and pool.execute()
):
pool.query("SELECT field FROM atable", function(err, rows, fields) {
})
Alternatively, there is also the possibility of manually acquiring a connection from the pool and returning it later:
pool.getConnection(function(err, conn) {
conn.query();
pool.releaseConnection(conn);
})
Using Promise Wrapper
MySQL2 also support Promise API. Which works very well with ES7 async await.
async function main() {
const mysql = require('mysql2/promise');
const connection = await mysql.createConnection({host:'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test'});
const [rows, fields] = await connection.execute('SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = ? AND `age` > ?', ['Morty', 14]);
}
MySQL2 use default Promise
object available in scope. But you can choose which Promise
implementation you want to use
const mysql = require('mysql2/promise');
const bluebird = require('bluebird');
const connection = await mysql.createConnection({host:'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test', Promise: bluebird});
const [rows, fields] = await connection.execute('SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `name` = ? AND `age` > ?', ['Morty', 14]);
MySQL2 also exposes a .promise() function on Pools, so you can create a promise/non-promise connections from the same pool
async function main() {
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const pool = mysql.createPool({host:'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test'});
const promisePool = pool.promise();
const [rows,fields] = await promisePool.query("SELECT 1");
MySQL2 exposes a .promise() function on Connections, to "upgrade" an existing non-promise connection to use promise
const mysql = require('mysql2');
const con = mysql.createConnection(
{host:'localhost', user: 'root', database: 'test'}
);
con.promise().query("SELECT 1")
.then( ([rows,fields]) => {
console.log(rows);
})
.catch(console.log)
.then( () => con.end());
Array results
If you have two columns with the same name, you might want to get results as an array rather than an object to prevent them from clashing. This is a deviation from the Node MySQL library.
For example: select 1 as foo, 2 as foo
.
You can enable this setting at either the connection level (applies to all queries), or at the query level (applies only to that specific query).
Connection Option
const con = mysql.createConnection(
{ host: 'localhost', database: 'test', user: 'root', rowsAsArray: true }
);
Query Option
con.query({ sql: 'select 1 as foo, 2 as foo', rowsAsArray: true }, function(err, results, fields) {
console.log(results)
console.log(fields)
});
API and Configuration
MySQL2 is mostly API compatible with Node MySQL. You should check their API documentation to see all available API options.
One known incompatibility is that DECIMAL
values are returned as strings whereas in Node MySQL they are returned as numbers. This includes the result of SUM()
and AVG()
functions when applied to INTEGER
arguments. This is done deliberately to avoid loss of precision - see https://github.com/sidorares/node-mysql2/issues/935.
If you find any other incompatibility with Node MySQL, Please report via Issue tracker. We will fix reported incompatibility on priority basis.
Documentation
You can find more detailed documentation here. You should also check various code examples to understand advanced concepts.
Acknowledgements
- Internal protocol is written by @sidorares MySQL-Native
- Constants, SQL parameters interpolation, Pooling,
ConnectionConfig
class taken from node-mysql - SSL upgrade code based on @TooTallNate code
- Secure connection / compressed connection api flags compatible to MariaSQL client.
- Contributors
Contributing
Want to improve something in node-mysql2
. Please check Contributing.md for detailed instruction on how to get started.