Getting Started with MySQL: Installation and First Database Setup

Name: Installing MySQL and Creating Databases | MySQL for Beginners
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T00:28:26.385096+00:00
Channel: Alex The Analyst
Description: Summary and key takeaways on Getting Started with MySQL: Installation and First Database Setup, covering Introduction In this article we walk through the very

Alex The Analyst

Jan 13, 2026

•

4 min read

YouTube video ID: wgRwITQHszU

Source: YouTube video by Alex The Analyst — Watch original video

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Introduction

In this article we walk through the very first lesson of a comprehensive MySQL tutorial series. The lesson focuses on installing MySQL, configuring the server, and creating a starter database that will be used throughout the beginner, intermediate, and advanced tracks.

Course Overview

The full tutorial is split into three parts: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
The instructor also offers three paid courses on analystbuilder.com:
MySQL Crash Course (interview prep)
Full MySQL Course (basic to intermediate)
Advanced MySQL Course (deep‑dive for analysts)
Links to these courses are provided in the video description.

Installing MySQL

Download the installer
Go to dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer.
Choose the appropriate operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux).
Two installer options appear:
- MySQL Installer Community (full package, larger download)
- MySQL Installer Web Community (small stub, downloads components during install)
The tutorial uses the full Community installer.
Run the installer
No need to create a MySQL account; click “No thanks, just start my download.”
Save the .exe file and launch it.
Select a setup type
Keep the default Developer Default (includes server, Workbench, connectors, etc.).
Click Next.
Resolve any pre‑installation requirements
If prompted, install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (or other listed packages).
After installing required components, continue.
Installation progress
The installer downloads and installs the selected products (server, Workbench, connectors). This usually takes a few minutes.

Configuring the MySQL Server

Server configuration – only the server needs explicit configuration.
Connectivity – accept default port (3306) and protocol settings.
Authentication method – choose Password (not legacy) and set a strong root password.
Windows service – enable MySQL Server as a Windows service and set it to start automatically.
Apply configuration – click Execute to finalize.
Optional components – samples & examples can be installed, but they are not required for the tutorial.

Launching MySQL Workbench

After installation, the Workbench opens automatically.
The main screen shows a Local Instance MySQL connection – this is the server running on your machine.
Clicking the connection opens the SQL editor where you will write and run queries.

Creating the Starter Database

Open a new SQL script
In Workbench, click File → Open SQL Script and navigate to the MySQL Beginner Series folder.
Open the file named parks_and_rec_create_DB.sql (available on the instructor’s GitHub).
Run the script
Press the lightning‑bolt button (or Ctrl+Shift+Enter).
The script creates a database called parks_and_rec and populates three tables with sample data.
The output shows 6 rows affected confirming successful execution.
Refresh the schema list
Click the refresh icon in the Schemas pane.
The new parks_and_rec database appears with its tables (employee_demographics, employee_salary, etc.).

Exploring the Data

Right‑click a table (e.g., employee_demographics) → Select Rows – Limit 1000.
Workbench generates and runs SELECT * FROM parks_and_rec.employee_demographics;.
The result grid displays columns such as employee_id, first_name, last_name, age, gender, birth_date and the corresponding rows.
Executing queries:
The lightning bolt with a small “i” runs the entire script.
The lightning bolt with a “▶” runs only the highlighted statement.
You can close the SQL Additions panel (the small “+” button) if you don’t need it for the series.

Next Steps

The next lesson will dive into basic SELECT statements, filtering, and ordering data using the tables you just created.
Keep the Workbench open and the parks_and_rec database ready for hands‑on practice.

Summary of Key Actions

Download and install MySQL Community Installer (Developer Default).
Resolve any Visual C++ redistributable requirements.
Configure the server with a password and set it as a Windows service.
Open MySQL Workbench, connect to the local instance, and run the provided SQL script to create the parks_and_rec database.
Verify the tables and sample data via the Select Rows feature.

Conclusion

The essential takeaway is that after a straightforward installation and configuration of MySQL and Workbench, you now have a fully functional local MySQL server with a ready‑to‑use sample database. This foundation lets you focus on learning SQL queries in the upcoming lessons without worrying about setup complexities.

You can now write and run SQL queries against a locally installed MySQL server and a pre‑populated sample database, so you’re fully prepared to start learning MySQL without any further installation steps.

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Full Transcript YouTube

what's going on everybody today we are
going to be starting our MySQL tutorial
[Music]
series now the entire MySQL series will
be broken up into three smaller series
we'll have our beginner our intermediate
and are Advanced this lesson is the very
first lesson in the beginner Series
where we're going to walk through all of
the beginner or the basics of MySQL
today we're going to be setting
everything up so we'll be installing
MySQL and then creating our database
that we'll use to actually learn my SQL
now before we get started I wanted to
let you know that I created three full
MySQL courses over on analyst
builder.com I built a crash course for
MySQL for people who are going to be
interviewing or taking technical
interviews I also created a full MySQL
course that's going to cover everything
from the basics all the way to the
intermediate level and then lastly I
created an advanced course that's going
to teach you a lot of the more advanced
things that an analyst would typically
use those courses are going to go really
in depth and they're going to have a lot
of practice questions along the way and
we'll also have full guided projects in
there as well I'll have links in the
description to to all of those courses
if you want to check those out now
without further Ado let's jump on my
screen and install my SQL and create our
database all right so let's get started
by downloading MySQL we're going to come
right over here to dev. myql.com
/downloads slster and I will have that
link in the description so you don't
have to write all that out but you
should be seeing this page right here
now we have to select an operating
system I'm using a Windows machine and
if you aren't if you're using Linux or
Mac or something else it should populate
at 4 you but if it doesn't just select
this drop down and select your operating
system next we have two different
downloads we can install the MySQL
installer Community or MySQL installer
web Community this one is very small but
then you actually do have to download
the installer it just gets it from the
web this one I'm going to download the
actual installer it's larger but this is
the one I'm going to do so I'm going to
go ahead and select download it's going
to ask me if I want to log in or create
an account and I don't I'm going to say
no thanks just start my download
I'm going to save this in this desktop
folder doesn't really matter where you
save it we're going to save that and
it's going to download it should be done
in just a few seconds I'm going to go
ahead and click on it and it's going to
open it up when it's finished and we
should get the interface or the UI for
the actual installation for MySQL so
here is the MySQL installer and first
thing we need to do is choose a setup
type now we're going to keep the
developer default unless you really know
what you're doing and you can select the
server only the client only full which
is literally everything my SQL has to
offer or custom so we're going to keep
this developer default just installing
the things that we kind of need so let's
go ahead and select next and for
whatever reason on my computer it's
saying this path already exists you
probably won't get that but I'm just
going to go ahead and select next and
then I'll select yes it keeps doing that
I can't explain why but it keeps doing
that for me even though I've deleted it
from my computer completely U but it
just remembers it somewhere in its
memory now the next thing we need is to
check requirements now I just have this
one it says I need to download this uh
Visual Studio I'm not going to do that
but on your screen you may have multiple
multiple requirements typically you're
looking at something like this Microsoft
Visual C++ redistributable package what
you need to do is download this all you
have to do is Click download once you
download and install that on your
computer and then we go back all of
those should be gone that's the one that
I see the most when I'm actually working
with these requirements I had to install
it myself when I got this new laptop so
go ahead and install that if you need to
but if yours looks like mine we don't
need this visual studio for what we're
going to do so we're going to go ahead
and select next it is giving us a prompt
that we haven't satisfied all the
requirements but that's okay we're going
to go ahead and select yes as well now
we're ready to install all of these
things these are all things that myl
wants you to install the most important
are the server and the workbench but it
does not hurt to have all these other
things as well some of these connectors
are also important so we're going to go
ahead and
execute this will take just a few
minutes I'll skip ahead uh when they're
all done but this should take just a few
minutes and then we'll continue on
installing my SQL so everything just
completed and now we're going to select
next and now we need to actually
configure our product now really the
only one that we actually need to
configure is the server the router says
we need to configure it and the samples
and examples say we need to configure it
as well but really it's just the server
let's go ahead and select next
now we're not going to change anything
for this type and networking unless you
know what you're doing with the port the
X protocol Port uh we're not going to
change any of this we'll go ahead and
select next next thing we need to do is
Select an authentication method I'm
going to be using a password I'm not
going to be using the Legacy
authentication method so I'm just going
to go ahead and create a password now
for you and I keep getting this error
and I can't explain why right here for
you you should be creating a password at
the bottom it's remembering my password
somehow and I I really can't explain it
but I'm going to create my password or
check my password uh this is one that I
already created uh before I deleted it
off my computer but it's still there um
so it's saying my password is still good
but if you need to you should be
entering a password and then confirming
your password and saving it and then you
should also be checking it as well and
then we're going to configure this as a
MySQL server as a Windows service I'm
going to keep that checked uh and we're
going to start the MySQL server at
system startup I like that automatically
being there I don't want to mess with
that so I'm going to keep it as it has
it we're going to go ahead and select
next and the last thing we do is just
need to execute this and then everything
we put in there is going to actually go
so let's run this and execute it and
that's just finished so let's go ahead
and select finish now it says
configuration complete for the server
but we also need to configure these
other two let's take a look at these
really quickly we're not going to do
anything on this it even says we really
don't need to do this we just need to
click finish and configuration not
needed next we'll do samples and
examples and we can input our password
and all this is really going to do is
put in some sample databases for us in
our database which if you want you
definitely can do that uh I just
connected that worked I'm going to hit
next and execute and it's basically just
going to put in a database or two some
sample ones for you to look at and the
configuration is complete you don't have
to do that one but we'll see that in
just a second we're going to select next
and now the installation is completely
done and we can start my SQL workbench
after setup and start my SQL shell after
setup now I'm not going to do the shell
so I'm going to actually uncheck that
and we're going to select
finish now my SQL just popped up for us
and this is exactly what you should be
seeing now there's a lot of things in my
SQL to learn and know how to do we're
not going to be taking a look at all of
that stuff today but in future lessons
we'll walk through a lot of these
different things that kind of correlate
with different lessons or things that
we're working on in my SQL the first
thing that we're going to click on is
right over here this is our local
instance this is local to just our
machine it's not a connection to you
know some other database on the cloud or
anything like that it's just our local
instance we're going to go ahead and
click on this so this is what you should
be seeing right here this is where we're
going to actually write all of our SQL
code and I'll show you all this in just
a second but this is where we can
actually create our database and our
database is going to go right over here
on this left hand side this silicon one
is actually a sample database it has a
bunch of tables and Views St procedures
functions has all these things in in
here if you want to go ahead and mess
around with that what we're about to do
is create our own database that we're
going to be using throughout this entire
series both the beginner intermediate
and advanced we'll use a lot of this and
sometimes we'll import some other ones
for different use cases but this will
serve for most of what we're trying to
do throughout this entire series now
what I'm going to do is I'm going to go
ahead and I'm going to say open a SQL
script file in a new query Tab and right
here it opened up to a folder that I
already created this MySQL beginner
series folder within it we have this
right here the parks and rec create DB
now in order to get this you just have
to go to the GitHub and download this
file that's all you have to do we're
then going to open this file so let's
click on it we're going to say open and
what you're now seeing is basically the
query editor this is where you can write
your code now we're not importing a
database we're actually creating it by
running code now because this is the
first lesson in the beginner series I'm
going to assume that you don't know a
ton about my SQL really all this is
doing is creating the database name and
then we're inserting a few tables into
that database and then we're inserting
data into those tables so this is all of
our data that will go into these tables
that we create we only have one two
three different tables that we're going
to be using so all you have to do to run
this is click this lightning button
right up here we're going to go ahead
and execute this if we come down to the
bottom and we pull this up this is our
output this says six rows affected and
we have a bunch of other things like
create table create table insert insert
create table insert into these things
are all working perfectly so now if we
go ahead and click refresh in our
schemas with this refresh button right
here this Parks and Recreation table is
populated if we go under the tables we
see all of these things so now that
we've actually created our database and
our tables that's really all we were
trying to do in this lesson but I just
want to open up a table really quickly
show you what it looks like show you how
we can run code and then in the next
lesson we'll start actually learning how
to query this data so let's go up to
employee demographics we're going to
rightclick and select rows limit 1000
this is going to open up a new window
right up here and it's going to say
select everything from this database dot
this table employee demographics and it
ends with a semicolon now right down
here we have this output window this is
the actual data that sits in our table
we have columns right here so employee
ID first name last name age gender and
birth date and then here are all of our
employees on each row so these are all
separate rows we have Leslie nope Tom
haford and it goes on and on so this is
all of our data the most important
things to know when we're actually
working with this and I'm going to zoom
in is if we hover over this query right
here and we run it we can select this
execute which is this lightning bolt
with this I we're going to execute this
and it's going to run this because we're
highlighted over it now if we have two
queries let's say this one right here
but let's change it to employee uncore
salary so we'll do underscore salary
let's say we want to query this table so
now if we highlight over this and we go
up and select the lightning bolt with
the I now we're looking at a different
table but if we select even if we're
hovering over this if we select this
button we're going to execute everything
in this editor window so let's run this
and now you can see at the bottom we
have two outputs the employee
demographics and the employee salary so
this button is going to run everything
in this editor window whereas if we
select this lightning bolt with the ey
we're doing everything that's just under
where we have the cursor where we have
it highlighted the very last thing that
I want to mention is that right over
here you may have this up and you
probably don't want that we're not going
to do any SQL additions in the series
you can get rid of that by clicking this
button right here so starting in the
next lesson we'll have everything ready
to go and we will start learning the
basics of my sequel I hope you're able
to follow along get everything set up
how we have it on the screen I am super
excited about this series I just I love
SQL so I'm really really really excited
to get started on this with you guys I
will see you guys in the next
[Music]
lesson
[Music]