MySQL? When should I use it and why?

MySQL (or any other databse system) was basically designed to handle large amounts of data. You should use it whenever it could take your work time from one hour at least down to one second.

It's up to you

More: It's a service with users and passwords. Each user with its own databases, tables and data. It has lots of commands, from simple ones to very complicate ones. Now... I can tell you more, but I don't know what direction to head to .. I have a lot of stuff about mysql in my head and I don't know what to start with.

What's your biggest dilemma?

Simply put, you use it to store/retrieve data in an organized way.

You could be organized in notepad too

You can think of mySQL similar to a spreadsheet. And as a matter of fact, you can export mySQL data to a spreadsheet. All sorts of web applications, including this forum, use mySQL to store data.

Hi Michael,

It would help to know what you're up to, or what your plans are.

That would make your questions much easier to answer.

A few examples of when to use a database...

-> To store visitor/logon information
-> To handle inventory
-> Keep track of sales data
-> For blogging, image libraries, calendering, and lots more.

Just for the record, SQL is one of the easiest languages to get your head around as a newbie.

It's extremely high level (meaning very close to written English commands)

For instance, let's say you have a sales database...

And in that database, you have a table of customers.

What if you wanted to find all of your customers whose first name was Fred?

Easy...you could write a statement (or query) that went something like this:

select * from customers where firstname = 'fred'

In other words, you ask your database to give you every column entry (*) from your 'Customers' table where 'Fred' turns up in the Firstname column.

In fact, I think my explanation is harder to understand than the query itself!

SQL is very newbie friendly, but highly complex and powerful for experts.

Steve

Hi Michael Hutchings

I don't think you need to know how MySQL works for your online business. Save that for the techie.

In simple terms, MySQL is a software that allow you to store data. It provide function that allow developer to search for the data (information) that are stored. If you wish, you can think of it like Excel. One worksheet in Excel is One table in MySQL. But in Excel, it is very difficult to link multiple related worksheets together to provide you with the information that you need. In MySQL, it will be much easier.

MySQL is not the only database that is available. But it is open source, so it is free, or almost free compare to others. Because of this reason, a lot of web application (or even organisation) start to use it.

Web application required database (for this case MYSQL) to store information
like customers, products, orders, etc.

For your question: when should I use it and why?
Most likely you will not used it directly, but the application that you used will (eg Wordpress). You just need to know how to use Wordpress. You do not need to know how Wordpress used MySQL (how Wordpress use MySQL to store you posts, pages information).