Thanks for that. Adding the final fix as it might be useful for others trying to do sql queries on a local mySQL database.

The solution was to run the following;

Needs["DatabaseLink`"]
OpenSQLConnection[]

This opens up a database connection tool. Using this tool, I was able to insert the settings for the database and add it to the connections in the "connection tool". I called the database "SocialData" in the connection tool. Once the database had been added in the connections tool I could then run;

Needs["DatabaseLink`"]
SQLExecute[
 OpenSQLConnection[
  "SocialData"], "SELECT * FROM `table1` WHERE \
`test`='abc'  LIMIT 10 "]

This is working nicely now. Many thanks.

SQLExecute[DatabaseReference[
Association[
  "Backend" -> "mysql", "Name" -> "socialdata", "Port" -> 3306, 
   "Host" -> "localhost", "Username" -> "root", 
   "Password" -> ""]], "SELECT * FROM `table1` WHERE 1 LIMIT 10 ", 
 "ShowColumnHeadings" -> True]

The output is as above. There dont seem to be any error messages. The output seems to just repeat the previous command. Apologies, I'm sure this is something very simple, I'm just starting to get into Mathematica!

Please provide the output you get and any error messages.

The following fails

doesn't seem to work

which does not work!