In its simplest form, a relational database management system, such as MySQL, is a glorified spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel. We use it to store data in rows and columns. Every row is a "thing" and every column is a specific piece of information about the "thing" in the relevant row. I put "thing" in inverted commas because we're not limited to storing objects. In fact, the most common example of a thing, both in the real world and in explaining databases, is data about people. A basic database storing information about customers of an e-commerce website could look something similar to the following:
|
ID |
First name |
Surname |
E-mail address |
Telephone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Frodo |
Baggins |
+1 111 111 1111 | |
|
2 |
Bilbo |
Baggins |
+1 111 111 1010 | |
|
3 |
Samwise |
Gamgee |
+1 111 111 1001 |
If we look from the left to the right in a single row, we will get all the information about one person. If we look in a...