Summary

This chapter has introduced you to some simple, yet important, conceptsmainly data storage. You learned about the skeleton of a databasewhich is composed of tables, columns, and rowsand about crucial concepts that can aid in performance, maintenance, and efficiency.

More importantly, you looked at the various databases supported in this book. You learned about Access, MSDE, and MySQL as well as the DBMSs that work in conjunction with them. You saw how to obtain and install the necessary software, how to create tables, columns, and rows, and how to restore the backed-up Dorknozzle database so that you can work with dynamic Dorknozzle data in your database of choice. As the chapter progressed, we also looked at the many tables contained within the Dorknozzle database. You looked at the Employees, Departments, CreditCards, EmployeeStore, and Orders tables as well as the other tables left open so that you can continue to work with the Dorknozzle web application on your own.

The next chapter, "A SQL Primer," goes beyond data storage and introduces you to the language used in data accessSQL.