MySQL Introduction

Why use Databases?

Using text files to store information is not always the best method. In most cases it is easier and more efficient to use databases. Some things work similarly, but retrieving information is where databases really prevail over flat text files. Getting info and displaying it on a web page is really difficult to do with text files, but using MySQL makes it actually worth doing. Also, it is possible to find specific records and retrieve more desired results.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a database. There are many types of databases and most use SQL (Structured Query Language) to communicate with it. It uses words like "CREATE TABLE" or "INSERT INTO" to run queries on the database. In MySQL the syntax can look a little bit different than other database styles. Oracle does not allow the ` character. MySQL likes it when you put those around table names and column names.

Databases contain Tables which contain rows. Databases could be compared to folders which contain files called tables. In the tables there are rows, which is where the data is stored. Every table has columns defined when it is created. These columns specify what type of data will be stored. Every row in the table follows the column's guidelines. Databases can hold more than one table and a table can hold more than one row.

Overview

Some of the cool things in MySQL that we will cover are: