Robert.....
> Is there a way to easily connect to a database with read-only access
> or do I have to create a new user, give that user read-only
> permission, and then log in as that user?
User permissions is one way, I think they are easy to change in a table,
trouble is I always have to play around to give myself the access I need,
after figuring it out I'm not likely to change it! <grin>
I guess you could create a new user with limited permissions just to be
safe.
What I've done when 'experimenting' on a hot server is to create a test
database and use that. As long as you and any scripts or programs you
write are working with that your real data is safe. You can do a dump of
the real db and load it into your test database (if it doesn't have a
zillion rows of data) and learn, develop, and debug with that.
brew
