HTML, XHTML, & CSS All-in-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Data

In This Chapter

• Understanding databases, tables, records, and fields

• Introducing the relational data model

• Introducing a three-tier model

• Understanding MySQL data types

• Getting started with MySQL and phpMyAdmin

• Adding a password to your MySQL root account

• Creating new MySQL users

• Designing a simple table

• Adding data to the table

Most programs and Web sites are really about data. Data drives the Internet, so you really need to understand how data works and how to manage it well if you want to build high-powered, modern Web sites.

The trend in Web development is to have a bunch of specialized languages that work together. XHTML describes page content, CSS manages visual layout, JavaScript adds client-side interactivity, and PHP adds server-side capabilities. You're probably not surprised when I tell you that yet another language, SQL (Structured Query Language), specializes in working with data.

In this minibook, you discover how to manage data. Specifically, you find out how to create databases, add data, create queries to retrieve data, and create complex data models to solve real-world problems. In this chapter, I show you some tools that automate the process of creating a data structure and adding data to it. In later chapters in this minibook, I show how to control the process directly through SQL.

Examining the Basic Structure of Data

Data has been an important part of programming since computing began. Many languages have special features for working ...