Query too long

I'm importing an SQL file using phpMyAdmin and it breaks in the middle of import giving me the error "#2006 - MySQL server has gone away".

I believe it breaks while importing into the customer table and the SQL insert statement in the SQL file is very very long because it inserts many records in one statement. I understand that the person who exported the file should export it with separate inserts for each record.

But now that all I have is the exported SQL file, how do it get it into the database?

when you have a long series of values...

Code:

---

INSERT INTO sometable (column, column, column, ... )
VALUES
  ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ...

---

you can easily break it up just by adding a new INSERT line as often as you wish -- say, every couple of hundred rows ...

Code:

---

INSERT INTO sometable (column, column, column, ... )
VALUES
  ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
;
INSERT INTO sometable (column, column, column, ... )
VALUES
  ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ( value, value, value, ... )
, ...

---

don't forget the semi-colon to terminate the preceding INSERT statement

I splitted the SQL statement and then got "max execution time exceeded" error. So I then splitted in into multiple SQL files. And I also had to use TypePad in order to be able to handle editing the large text file.

But it finally worked. Thanks.

It's more effective to use mysql command line for import which can handle GB of data with ease.
In case of phpMyAdmin you should increase the max post upload size & maximum execution time for handling large data.