What is the functionality of events in MySQL?

In MySQL, an Event is a mechanism used for scheduling operations to be performed at specific times. By creating an Event, tasks such as data backup, data cleaning, and statistics can be regularly executed in the database.

Using Events can eliminate the need for manual execution of these tasks, improving the performance and reliability of the database. Events can be scheduled to run at specific times or at regular intervals.

In order to create an Event, you need to use the CREATE EVENT statement and specify the Event’s name, execution time, execution statement, and other information. For example:

CREATE EVENT myevent
    ON SCHEDULE AT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP + INTERVAL 1 HOUR
    DO
      UPDATE mytable SET mycol = mycol + 1;

The above example creates an Event named myevent that will execute an UPDATE statement every hour to update data in the mytable table.

To enable Event, the event scheduler needs to be enabled in the database. You can use the following statement to enable the event scheduler:

SET GLOBAL event_scheduler = ON;

Using Events can easily manage regularly scheduled tasks in the database, improving the efficiency of database automation operations.