Information technology has allowed the development of humanity at an unprecedented rate and at totally unexpected levels. Among the many fields that he changed from scratch, database management stands out. There are a few solutions for creating, modifying, and accessing them, but one of the most popular, favored by online giants like Google, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, is MySQL. This is, in fact, a relational database management system (RDBMS), that is, software whose function is to create and use databases based on a relational model.
In the following article, you will find out what MySQL databases are and why they came to be used on a large scale.
1. What are MySQL databases?
A database consists of a series of information placed in a structured collection, according to certain rules. To understand the term more easily, the following analogy can be used. Think of a series of photos, which represent the data, and the album they are placed in as a database. The photographs will be placed in an orderly fashion, for example, according to the people photographed in the collections, which are related to others, placed according to the time they were taken. This means that these two collections can be related, helping to access information as quickly and accurately as possible.
The MySQL program is one of the most popular types of RDBMS software, created in 1994 by the Swedish company MYSQL AB. In 2008, the company was bought by the American company Sun Microsystems, and as of 2010, the program became the property of the IT giant Oracle. The software is open source, which means that anyone can install it for free and even modify it according to their preferences. There is also a commercial version, which can be purchased from source and to be used only in the case of creating database administration programs, which is sold for a fee.
The working principle of MySQL databases is very simple. There are two parties, namely the client and the server, connected through a network. To access this database, three steps will be followed:
A programmer will create a database with the help of program-specific commands, defining what relationships exist between each table;
Clients make requests to the database located on the server, either through specific commands or through the graphical interface (GUI), among the most used programs are MySQL Workbench, Sequel Pro and phpMyAdmin;
The application on the server will respond by providing the client with the requested information.
2. Why are MySQL databases widely used?
Databases of this type are used throughout the world and are preferred by many programmers to other types of relational software.
Among the reasons for their preference are:
- The fact that it is open source and that it can be modified without having to pay makes this type of software preferred by a wide range of programmers, from hobbyists to professionals, employed by large multinationals;
- The excellent performance and stability of the program allows you to store and work with impressive amounts of data, without delays or blockages in recording;
- The security of the program is at a very high level due to the possibility of using a password, the privileged access system and the management of user accounts;
- In recent years, the program has become a standard in the information industry, which means that there is an impressive number of programmers on the market who know how to use the necessary commands to quickly create a complex database. This means that there will always be human resources that can use this database management system.
