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SQL

Cross-platform language for management of data in relational database management systems (RDBMS). A simple example:

SELECT * 
FROM books
WHERE price > 100.00
ORDER BY title;

A slightly more advanced example, showing use of SQL and PHP embedded in HTML:

<?php

// step 1 of 3 - connect to server
$dbcnx = @mysql_connect("databasehost", "username", "password");
if (!$dbcnx) {
  echo( "<P>Unable to connect to the database server at this time.</P>" );
  exit();
}

// step 2 of 3 - select database
if (! @mysql_select_db( "databasename" ) ) {
  echo( "<P>Unable to locate the 'databasename' database at this time.</P>" );
  exit();
}

// step 3 of 3 - do some processing w/ database, e.g. run query
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `PCBs` LIMIT 0, 30 ';
$result = mysql_query( $sql, $dbcnx );
if (!$result) {
  echo( "<P>Error performing query: " . mysql_error() . "</P>" );
  exit();
}

// parse and process results from query
while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array($result) ) {
  echo( "<p>" . $row["NameKey"] . "</p>" );
}

?>

Database Products

That supports SQL

• Oracle - their main business is RDBMS
• IBM - second after Oracle among vendors of RDBMS, and their DB2 family has been around for ever
• Microsoft - got a couple of products
  • Microsoft SQL Server - www.microsoft.com/sql, Wikipedia
  • Microsoft Access (standalone and part of some Office suite distros) microsoft.com/access, Wikipedia
• MySQL - one of the open source variants, very common on the Internet and part of the LAMP stack.

References

• Wikipedia on SQL
• Getting Started with MySQL - dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql_intro.html
• The phpMyAdmin Project - www.phpmyadmin.net
  • Learning SQL Using phpMyAdmin - www.php-editors.com/articles/sql_phpmyadmin.php
• MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en
  • on data types - dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/storage-requirements.html
• MySQL Documentation - dev.mysql.com/doc/
• Developer Articles
  • Building a Database-Driven Web Site Using PHP and MySQL -
    • Your First PHP Script -
    • Part 2: Getting Started with MySQL
    • Part 3: Getting Started with PHP
    • Part 4: Publishing MySQL Data on the Web
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system
• Getting MySQL & Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) together….finally « explorers’ club - jwopitz.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/getting-mysql-mac-os-x-105-leopard-togetherfinally/ Sunday, December 9, 2007
• MySQL on Mac OS X - developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/osdb.html
• phpMyAdmin:www.phpmyadmin.net/
  
• More information on installation-specifics is also available but with restrictive access.