Unlike SQL Server, you cannot reliably move a MySQL database by moving the binary files in the MySQL directory. Instead, you should use the mysqldump utility.

Open a command line window to the MySQL bin directory and make sure both mysql and mysqldump binaries are both present. On Linux this location is likely /usr/local/mysql/bin and on Windows this is most likely C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\

Dump the database using a command like this:
./mysqldump --user=user --password=pw database_name_here > db.sql

Then connect using the MySQL command line client and create the database:
./mysql --user=user --password=pw
create database new_database_name
use new_database_name
source db.sql

Labels: MySQL, SQL

By default MySQL stores its dates in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format. When you have to integrate with .NET, it's nice to get the date in a format which is readable by DateTime.Parse().

In your SQL query, you can format the date by using the date_format function.
SELECT date_format(YourDateHere, '%a %D %b %Y') FROM TableName;
Here are some example formatting strings and examples of their output (replace the formatting in the red part of the query above).

Labels: MySQL, SQL