SOLVED(sort of): OT: deleting tables from mysql using wildcard

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Ron Johnson wrote:
> Kent West wrote:
> >> I have a lot of tables in a mysql database starting with "phpWeb"; I
> >> want to delete them. I can delete them one-by-one with a command like:
> >>
> >>    drop table phpWebmod_modules;
> >>
> >> Rather than trying to delete all 20-30 similar tables, a wildcard
> >> command would be really nice hear. I've been googling for the last
> >> couple of hours, and haven't found the solution. Yes, I've tried *
> and %
> >> and putting the names in single-quotes, as in
> >>
> >>    drop table phpWeb%
> >>    drop table phpWeb*
> >>    drop table 'phpWeb*'
> >>    drop table 'phpWeb%'
>
> Are there compound statements in MySQL?
>
> for :x as each row of
>     select table_name
>     from syscatalog
>     where sysrelation starting with 'phpWeb'
> do
>     drop table :x.table_name cascade;
> end for;

I'm not a MySQL person; this is my first semi-significant foray into it.
So I'm unsure about the compound statements.

However, I solved my problem (with way more work than should have been)
by exporting the table list.

I created a text file, "bub.sh":
    use joomla_church;
    show tables;
    quit

I then ran "mysql -p < bub.sh > bub.results". This created a text file
"bub.results" containing my list of tables. I then manually edited (with
some automation - search/replace) taking out  the references to
non-phpWeb tables, etc; the resulting file looked something like:

    use joomla_church;
    drop table phpWebmod_modules;
    drop table phpWeb_blah;
    .
    . 
    .
    drop table phpWeb_lastitem;

I then fed that back into mysql with "mysql -p < bub.results". Because I
had a typo (missing semi-colon, etc) here and there, I wound up having
to run this command 5 or 6 times (correcting a bit everytime), but I
eventually cleaned out all my tables.

Not as much work as it could have been; way more than it should have
been. A simple "drop table phpWeb*" would have been SO much easier. Oh,
well, that's a mysql issue, not Debian. I appreciate not getting flamed
for asking an off-topic question here; I only do so 'cause you folks are
the best resource on the web generally.

Thanks!

-- 
Kent