What is MySQL?

Databases are significant; they are the backbone of most of the world at this point because everything is controlled by data, every piece of software and every website. Because everything depends on databases, the database software itself is incredibly valuable. 

MySQL is an open-source relational database (a database structured to recognize relations between stored items of information) management system. The name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius' daughter and "SQL", the abbreviation for Structured Query Language and is used to communicate with the database.

MySQL is a database - a database is like the shelves in the toy store, they hold all the toys and the information about them, in the way the manager laid out. The "SQL" part stands for the orders the manager gave the shelf stockers in how to place things. For a website, MySQL can be used to store the data, the articles of a content site might have a table for example that holds the main written content, the name of the item and the date the article was written, among other info. 

The best things about MySQL:

  • It is free and easy to use and helps organize the databases.
  • It helps people keep track of, organize, access, and change their databases (a structured set of data).
  • It is the world's most popular open source database, and with its proven performance, reliability and ease-of-use, MySQL has become the leading database choice for web-based applications, used by high profile web properties including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo! and many others.