Easy way to export a SQL table without access to the server or phpMyADMIN

You should also consider phpMinAdmin which is only one file, so its easy to upload and setup.

You could use SQL for this:

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * INTO OUTFILE '$file' FROM `##table##`");

Then just point a browser or FTP client at the directory/file (backups/mytable.sql). This is also a nice way to do incremental backups, given the filename a timestamp for example.

To get it back in to your DataBase from that file you can use:

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
$result = mysql_query("LOAD DATA INFILE '$file' INTO TABLE `##table##`");

The other option is to use PHP to invoke a system command on the server and run 'mysqldump':

$file = 'backups/mytable.sql';
system("mysqldump --opt -h ##databaseserver## -u ##username## -p ##password## ##database | gzip > ".$file);

I did it by exporting to CSV, and then importing with whatever utility is available. I quite like the use of the php://output stream.

$result = $db_con->query('SELECT * FROM `some_table`');
$fp = fopen('php://output', 'w');
if ($fp && $result) {
    header('Content-Type: text/csv');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="export.csv"');
    while ($row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_NUM)) {
        fputcsv($fp, array_values($row));
    }
    die;
}

WORKING SOLUTION (latest version at: Export.php + Import.php )

EXPORT_TABLES("localhost","user","pass","db_name");

CODE:

//https://github.com/tazotodua/useful-php-scripts
function EXPORT_TABLES($host,$user,$pass,$name,  $tables=false, $backup_name=false ){
    $mysqli = new mysqli($host,$user,$pass,$name); $mysqli->select_db($name); $mysqli->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
    $queryTables = $mysqli->query('SHOW TABLES'); while($row = $queryTables->fetch_row()) { $target_tables[] = $row[0]; }   if($tables !== false) { $target_tables = array_intersect( $target_tables, $tables); }
    foreach($target_tables as $table){
        $result = $mysqli->query('SELECT * FROM '.$table);  $fields_amount=$result->field_count;  $rows_num=$mysqli->affected_rows;     $res = $mysqli->query('SHOW CREATE TABLE '.$table); $TableMLine=$res->fetch_row();
        $content = (!isset($content) ?  '' : $content) . "\n\n".$TableMLine[1].";\n\n";
        for ($i = 0, $st_counter = 0; $i < $fields_amount;   $i++, $st_counter=0) {
            while($row = $result->fetch_row())  { //when started (and every after 100 command cycle):
                if ($st_counter%100 == 0 || $st_counter == 0 )  {$content .= "\nINSERT INTO ".$table." VALUES";}
                    $content .= "\n(";
                    for($j=0; $j<$fields_amount; $j++)  { $row[$j] = str_replace("\n","\\n", addslashes($row[$j]) ); if (isset($row[$j])){$content .= '"'.$row[$j].'"' ; }else {$content .= '""';}     if ($j<($fields_amount-1)){$content.= ',';}      }
                    $content .=")";
                //every after 100 command cycle [or at last line] ....p.s. but should be inserted 1 cycle eariler
                if ( (($st_counter+1)%100==0 && $st_counter!=0) || $st_counter+1==$rows_num) {$content .= ";";} else {$content .= ",";} $st_counter=$st_counter+1;
            }
        } $content .="\n\n\n";
    }
    $backup_name = $backup_name ? $backup_name : $name."___(".date('H-i-s')."_".date('d-m-Y').")__rand".rand(1,11111111).".sql";
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');   header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary"); header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$backup_name."\"");  echo $content; exit;
}