Knowlage base

The process of setting up a MySQL database varies from host to host, you will however end up with a database name, a user name and a password. This information will be required to log in to the database.



If you have PHPMyAdmin (or a similar program) installed you can just go to it to log in with your user name and password. If not you must do all your database administration using PHP scripts.



Before you can do anything with your database, you must create a table. A table is a section of the database for storing related information. In a table you will set up the different fields which will be used in that table. Because of this construction, nearly all of a site's database needs can be satisfied using just one database.



Creating a table in PHPMyAdmin is simple, just type the name, select the number of fields and click the button. You will then be taken to a setup screen where you must create the fields for the database. If you are using a PHP script to create your database, the whole creation and setup will be done in one command.



Fields



There are a wide variety of fields and attributes available in MySQL and I will cover a few of these here:

Field Type Description 

TINYINT Small Integer Number  

SMALLINT Small Integer Number  

MEDIUMINT Integer Number  

INT Integer Number  

VARCHAR Text (maximum 256 characters)  

TEXT Text  





These are just a few of the fields which are available. A search on the internet will provide lists of all the field types allowed.



Creating A Table With PHP



To create a table in PHP is slightly more difficult than with MySQL. It takes the following format:



CREATE TABLE tablename {



Fields



}



The fields are defined as follows:



fieldname type(length) extra info,



The final field entered should not have a comma after it.



I will give full an example of using these later in the section.

# posted by arcady @ 1:04 AM