What is mySQL?

[themoff]

Probably the simplest of questions, but what is mySQL?

[littleman]

It is a free and very fast database. It is enormously popular for web applications. You could read all about it at:
[mysql.com...]

[sugarkane]

MySQL is an open source database engine, popular with many web developers as it has very tight integration with Perl and PHP.

more info here [mysql.com]

added: Posted at same time as littleman ;)

[Bolotomus]

MySQL rocks and rolls. It's powerful, free, and well supported.

It might not be as good as Oracle, but as far as raw SPEED goes, it can keep up with the biggest of the big dawgs.

Some features it lacks: referential integrity, triggers, nested select statements. None of that really bothers me. Hey, you can't beat the price!!

Bolotomus

[themoff]

Thanks. I realised just after hitting submit that I could have easily gone to Google and searched for the info. It is very easy to take WmW for granted!

[Brett_Tabke]

It is also command compatible with SQL query language.

[grnidone]

>It might not be as good as Oracle

Why is Oracle better?

-G

[stickytape]

mySql is plain brilliant! Imagine you had the power of a really good database program, like Oracle or MSAccess, and then imagine that it was really easy to integrate data in these files into web pages. Now imagine it being completely free, coded in plain English and incredibly easy to pick up.

Errm, well, you just imagined MySQL!!! It really is THAT good.

Like people have said above, mysql.com is a great place to go to download stuff.

I think the best part about MySQL is the fact that it integrates with PHP and other languages really easily. If you go to this site [webmasterbase.com] it has a great tutorial (with downloadable zip file) on how to us MySQL with PHP (Both of which are TOTALLY FREE).

Anyways, enough of my ranting. I guess the reason why I am ranting is I've only just started learning this stuff myself. Literally about 6 months ago, Id never even heard of MySQL and only vaguely about PHP. Now I know what they do, how they work (well, kinda) and how to use them (well, kinda :) )

Good luck with your coding!!

Rich

[theperlyking]

Not sure access could be described as good ;)

[bartek]

grnidone, unless handling critical data [openacs.org], MySQL is a very powerful package used by /. and many other prominent sites excelling at web applications and even moderately demanding non-web businesses. Oracle is a commercial "true" database (see the article for differences) and it can cost big $$$ to buy and run.
direct all flames to the author of the article
:)

[sugarkane]

> Why is Oracle better?

MySQL does have some limitations - for example it doesn't support nested queries, which means another step is needed in the coding when doing certain queries...

[Brett_Tabke]

There are many addon modules to - such as text relevance to order queries. It is very difficult to order query results when you get very many hits with MySql. It is one of the biggest drawbacks to search engines that use MySql - there is all kinds of post processing that much occur to rank results.