PHP for Absolute Beginners

4.1. The Basics of MySQL Data Storage

MySQL is a relational database management system, which lets you store data in multiple tables, where each table contains a set of named columns and each row consists of a data entry into the table. Tables will often contain information about other table entries, which allows developers to group relevant information into smaller groups to ease a script's load on the server, as well as simplifying data retrieval.

For example, take a look at how you might store information about musical artists (see Tables 4-1 and 4-2).

Table 4.1. The artists Table

artist_id	artist_name
1	Bon Iver
2	Feist

Table 4.2. The albums Table

album_id	artist_id	album_name
1	1	For Emma, Forever Ago
2	1	Blood Bank - EP3
3	2	Let It Die
4	2	The Reminder

The ...