hi guys,
i throw the question to Seun and other database programmers in the forum. What is the meaning of  SQL and what is the difference between SQL and MySQL? And also what is the requirements for getting started in SQL or MySQL?

segun,
pls since you are a database desiner in sql or my sql i think it is high time u throw more light in the language or you'd better start up a tutorial in this language

Well@zule i would say when considering a utility for data management the two most popular choices are MySQL and SQL Server. Both are efficient at keeping your data organized and readily available through a user interface, but they differ drastically in many areas. the major differences "Which is better, MySQL or SQL Server?" or the different btw the two.

Some key questions to ask yourself in determining which data management tool is best suited for your needs are:

How flexible do you need your data to be?
How secure must your data be?
Do you need support in utilizing your data management tools?
Standard Language SupportAn important aspect of database development is how to access your data using different .standard based protocols. Both MySQL and SQL Server do a good job of supporting all major protocols for accessing their respective databases. A standard protocol is the "programming language" used for a program to communicate to a SQL database. The most common protocol is called tSQL, or Transact SQL. Transact SQL is a series of statements that a program can use to access data and create new tables in a SQL database. The statements can INSERT new records, DELETE old records and UPDATE existing records, along with a myriad of other functions.

The international standard for this programming language is referred to as ANSI SQL. ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. ANSI is a collective governing body that determines what the standard language will be. For example, ANSI decides such things as the word INSERT will be used in the programming language as apposed to the work ADD to insert a new record into a database.

While both databases do a good job of supporting all major protocols, one of the most frequent complaints about MySQL is that it does not completely follow the ANSI SQL standard. This would not necessarily be any issue if your need for data storage never outgrows the capability of MySQL. However, if you data is constantly growing, there may be an eventual need to upgrade from MySQL to SQL Server to handle the vast amounts of data. In a situation like this, any application that has been written to manipulate a MySQL database will have to be revisited to be sure that the program is able to "communicate" with the new data store.

To give a better idea of the differences in MySQL and SQL Server, MySQL is geared more toward selecting data so is can be displayed, updated and saved again. MySQL is weaker in the areas of inserting and deleting data. MySQL is an excellent choice, for other reasons that we will discuss later on, for data storage and referencing data. MySQL is not the best choice however, for creating, inserting and deleting data from tables on the fly.

For an Internet application, MySQL would be a good choice for tracking clients and creating dynamically populated pages with information from the database. For an application of moderate to large scale that is used for commerce of any kind, SQL Server is by far the better choice with more options and functionality to add, manipulate, update and delete data.

Following are some specific technical differences in MySQL and SQL Server when it comes down to the ANSI SQL standard:

MySQL does not support Triggers, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not support User Defined Functions, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not have Cursor Support, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not support Stored Procedures, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not have FULL JOIN capabilities, SQL Server does.
MySQL has limited Import/Export capabilities, SQL Server has full support for Import/Export.
MySQL has limited Transaction Support while SQL Server offers full Transaction Support.
So, it becomes clear that SQL Server is an obvious choice for the company or individual that needs to have FULL control over their data to manipulate and change it as they need.

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                                                       Security Support
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Another major concern to business today is security. While data management can seem to be a mundane process at times, securing critical data from "the outside world" is an ever increasing and trying task.

While is good to know that your database management system (MySQL or SQL Server) utilize security features it is very important to know that the application has been verified by a third party. SQL Server has been certified as C2 compliant, which ensures that the database has adequate security support for government applications.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer helps administrators ensure that their SQL Server installations are up to date with the most current patches and security features. MySQL has no equivalent tool to protect and ensure the same confidence in their platform.

While both MySQL and SQL Server support security measures within in their platforms, MySQL supports security via the SQL GRANT command. The MySQL GRANT command is limited to granting security at the table level. This means that if any portion of data in the table needs to be secure from any particular user, then the entire table has to be secured from that user. SQL Server supports security at the column level, meaning that any portion of data in a table can be secured from any particular user while allowing that same user to see other portions of the table data.

SQL Server also makes their database more secure by abstracting its data behind a layer of stored procedures. This ensures that developers never see how the actual data is represented. My SQL, as noted above, does not support stored procedures.

                                                              Data Protection
Another security aspect is the protection from loss of data due to power failure. Database administrators in large environments employ the concept of "warm standby servers". This is an additional server containing duplicate data that, by normal use, is not accessed until an event such as a power failure of the main server. Standby servers are kept in a ready state using a concept known as log shipping. Log shipping takes a regularly scheduled backup (sometimes at intervals of less than 10 seconds) of a database and stores that data on the duplicate standby server´s hardware.

MySQL lacks the capability to perform such a backup transaction in an online, or "live" environment. This feature is standard to SQL Server and includes tools to help the database administrator manage the details of the log shipping.

                                                       Support and Service
When deciding on how you want to manage your data, you must also consider what kind of support you can expect to receive from the manufacturer of your data management application. After all, if you can´t figure out how to make it work for you, you can´t make any use of your data.

MySQL and SQL Server both offer support plans that are available from their respective vendors. Both applications offer some free support as well as some paid support options and plans.

MySQL claims to employ about 100 people worldwide, which makes up the entire company consisting of product development, support staff, sales staff, distribution, and clerical workers. With such a small staff dispersed over a wide area of expertises, this fact may worry some database administrators.

SQL Server, from Microsoft, has a significantly large support program and large staff backing the program.

Any problem again you can hit me on info@smartsoft-ng.com or any database management things hit me i can do better.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the most popular computer language used to create, modify, retrieve and manipulate data from relational database management systems.

Mysql is a multithreaded, multi-user, SQL Database Management System (DBMS), It have a free version, under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

So sql is the language , Mysql is one of the softwares, that allows you to write in that language(sql).

Query languages are the most easiest language to learn I think, because they are mostly in human readable forms in the sense that you can get the meaning or infer what the specific query does. Something like for example,

CREATE TABLE my_table (
my_field1 INT UNSIGNED,
PRIMARY KEY my_field1
)

Which means create table named my_table and assign a row with the name my_field of integer value which is usigned meaning (non negative value) and make the row a primary key(used as a key to that table).

Its very easy as i said, and can be learnt in one week. The hard part is normalisation, which is generally the process whereby the tables in a database are optimised to remove the potential for redundancy.

Introduction to SQL: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL
Introduction to MySQL: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL
Download MySQL and PHP: www.xampp.org

hi computer guru's.i'm patrick by name.i'm a student in my 1st year at college studying maths and computer science.i need a guru who can be of help to me to put me through in programming.my email is patogah4real@yahoo.com and my number is 08065485947. i'll b very grateful

hey sbu how r u doing? could not read dat skima guy.

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to the house, rank your databases/database engines 1 to 10, with 1 being the best (include uncommon ones too, if you feel they meet the list, dont forget, your OS and usage matters in your listing)

hi to every one,
thanks to every one that posted in the topic i do apprciate it a lots thanks to nairaland

Hello I need a site where i can learn PHP and MySQL from scratch. If u got any, mail with this mail address kingfemi@excite.com.

The following seems to be a write up tilted towards making people avoid mysql which is clearly the most popular database technology today and it's open source too.

Following are some specific technical differences in MySQL and SQL Server when it comes down to the ANSI SQL standard:

MySQL does not support Triggers, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not support User Defined Functions, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not have Cursor Support, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not support Stored Procedures, SQL Server does.
MySQL does not have FULL JOIN capabilities, SQL Server does.
MySQL has limited Import/Export capabilities, SQL Server has full support for Import/Export.
MySQL has limited Transaction Support while SQL Server offers full Transaction Support.

Times have changed and basically all the features listed above are now being supported by the current release.

Major difference:

MySQL is free, SQL Server is not
MySQL is more portable than SQL Server