An introduction to MySQL

MySQL is ...

Inexpensive. MySQL is free for most uses and relatively inexpensive for other uses.
Fast. By many accounts, MySQL is one of the fastest relational databases currently available.
Easy to use. Compared to other database management systems, MySQL is easy to install and use.
Portable. MySQL runs on most modern operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Support for SQL. Like any modern database product, MySQL supports SQL, which is the standard language for working with data that’s stored in relational databases.
Support for multiple clients. MySQL supports access from multiple clients from a variety of interfaces and programming languages including Java, C#, VB, Perl, PHP, Python, and C.
Connectivity. MySQL can provide access to data via an intranet or the Internet.
Security. MySQL can protect access to your data so only authorized users can view the data.
Referential integrity. Recent versions of MySQL provide support for referential integrity just like commercial databases such as Oracle Database o
Transaction processing. Recent versions of MySQL provide support for trans-action processing just like commercial databases such as Oracle Database or Microsoft SQL Server.

MySQL is an open-source database management system. It can be downloaded as a separate product from the MySQL website. And many Internet Service Providers include MySQL in their packages.
You can use the MariaDB server that comes with XAMPP to work with MySQL databases, since MySQL and MariaDB are essentially the same.
Referential integrity refers to keeping the relationships between tables intact. That means, for example, that you can’t delete a row in one table that is related to a row in another table.
Transaction processing refers to processing a series of related SQL statements as a group. Then, if one of the statements fails, the processing that’s been done by the other statements can be rolled back so the database isn’t compromised.