MySQL Syntax error when locally importing dump from Amazon MySQL RDS?

Question

When I create a database dump from Amazon RDS and then I try to import it locally, the result is ERROR 1064 (42000) at line 54.

At line 54 there is the following statement: CREATE TABLE account_emailconfirmation (

The command used for dump is: mysqldump -u user -h host.rds.amazonaws.com -p --default-character-set=utf8 --result-file=sync.sql database_name

The command used for import is: mysql --user=root -p mpl -vv < sync.sql

And here is the output (verbosity increased).

--------------
CREATE TABLE `account_emailconfirmation` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `created` datetime(6) NOT NULL,
  `sent` datetime(6) DEFAULT NULL,
  `key` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `email_address_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `key` (`key`),
  KEY `acc_email_address_id_5bcf9f503c32d4d8_fk_account_emailaddress_id` (`email_address_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `acc_email_address_id_5bcf9f503c32d4d8_fk_account_emailaddress_id` FOREIGN KEY (`email_address_id`) REFERENCES `account_emailaddress` (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
--------------

ERROR 1064 (42000) at line 54: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '(6) NOT NULL,
  `sent` datetime(6) DEFAULT NULL,
  `key` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
 ' at line 3
Bye

Answer 1

The problem is with datetime(6). MySql introduced storing of fractional seconds in v5.6.4. The syntax for indicating fractional seconds in datetime - this is the (6) - is not recognised by previous mysql versions.

The data was exported from a mysql v5.6.4 or later, and was attempted to be imported into an earlier version. Since the error message starts with (6), I believe that this is the problem.

Answer 2

'key' is a reserved word in MySQL, and shouldn't be used as a column name. It's possible that a different version on Amazon RDS allowed it, but your best bet is to change the column name to something different.