Difference between revisions of "Database Basics"

Revision as of 19:21, 24 September 2007

What is a Database?

The chances are that if you have ever logged into a web site or purchased an item on the internet you have interacted with a database in some way. Anything that involves the retreval or storage of information on a computer system is most likely to involve a database. In fact, databases are the core of just about every application that relies on data of some form to complete a task.

The first step in learning MySQL is to understand the difference between a database and a database management system (DBMS). The term database refers to the entity which stores the actual data (such as names and address for example) in a structured way. A database management system (DBMS) on the other hand, refers to the software used to store, access and manipulate the data stored in the database. All interactions with the database are always performed via the DBMS.

Modern databases and database management systems are not restricted to storing just text. Today, databases are used to store such items images, videos and software objects.

Understanding Database Tables

Database Tables provide the most basic level of data structure in a database. Each database can contain multiple tables and each table is designed to hold information of a specific type. For a example, a database may contain a customer table which contains the name, address and telephone number for all the customers of a particular business. The same database may also include a products table used to store the product descriptions with associated product codes for the items sold by the business.

Each table in a database is assigned a name which must be unique within that particular database. A table name, therefore, may only be used in a different database.

Introducing Database Schema