Introduction to Database and Database Management System.

We often search for information over the internet, store it and put it to use depending on the requirements but have we ever looked closely at the backend of the process? well, many of us don't consider it important as long as it gets our work done but being a steady client of the internet it is essential to have knowledge of the process that enables us to fetch the required data from the source and this is where Database comes into play.

The word Database is a blend of two words, data, and base.

In simple words, "data" can be facts related to any object in consideration.For example, your name, age, height, weight, etc are some data related to you. A picture, image, file, pdf, etc can also be considered as data, while "base" in simple words can be defined as the home for this set of data. Data here is stored into tables having rows and columns which can be updated or deleted as per the requirement.

Technically, the database is a systematic collection of data and it supports storage and manipulation of data to make data management easy.

For example, consider an online telephone directory, it positively uses a database to store data pertaining to people, phone numbers, other contact details which can be revised, deleted or obtained anytime.

To manage these operations the user requires access to the database which is controlled by a Database Management System (DBMS).

What is DBMS?



A Database Management System is a computer software application that interacts with end-users, other applications, and the database itself to capture and analyze data. It also provides protection and security to the database. It maintains data consistency in case of multiple users.

With all these benefits come a few downsides, it is complex, costly and large in scale.

A few well-known DBMSs include MySQL, PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle.

What is SQL?



SQL stands for "Structured Query Language". It is used to communicate with a database where its statements are used to perform tasks such as update data in a database or retrieve data from a database.

The standard SQL commands such as "Select", "Insert", "Update", "Delete", "Create", and "Drop" can be used to accomplish almost everything that one needs to do with a database.

Now that we have some knowledge regarding the structure and function of a database lets take MySQL into consideration (which is one of the most popular and powerful DBMS) and learn a few facts about it.

MySQL is a fast, easy-to-use Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) being used for many small and big markets.

It is a leading database choice for web-based applications, used by high-profile web businesses including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo and several more.

MySQL is developed, marketed and supported by MySQL AB, which is a Swedish company. MySQL is becoming so popular because of many good reasons −

It is released under an open source license, which means people can share and modify it as it is publicly accessible without restrictions.

It is very friendly to PHP, the most appreciated language for web development.

It handles the most expensive and powerful database packages.

It uses a standard form of the well-known SQL data language.

It works very quickly and works well even with large datasets.

It supports large databases, up to 50 million rows or more in a table.

We all use the internet today to learn, share, grow or even to entertain ourselves but do you know in between how much data is your required information stored?



The sum total of data held by big online storage and service companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook, estimates 1,200 petabytes between them. That is 1.2 million terabytes (one terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes)

If that was a little too much to understand let me give you a simple example, the average size of an HD movie that we download from the internet is 3.5 GB and one petabyte is equal to 1,000,000 GB, so by doing a little math, we can put it up like this, 1,200 petabytes (The size of the comprehensive internet) equals 34,28,57,143 HD movies.

concluding with the huge figure, we can acknowledge the databases which enable the user to upload and download all the desirable content in just a fraction of moments.