What is Database
Contents
A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system. Where databases are more complex they are often developed using formal design and modeling techniques.
What is WordPress Database
WordPress database is where all of the necessary website data is stored. Not just the basic information like usernames and passwords but posts, pages and comments, even the website theme and WordPress configuration settings.
WordPress uses MySQL as its database management system. MySQL is a software used to create databases, store and get data when requested. MySQL is also an open source software, just like WordPress and works best with other popular open source software, such as Apache web server, PHP, and Linux operating system.
To install WordPress you need a MySQL database. All WordPress hosting providers offer MySQL included in their hosting packages. During the WordPress installation, you provide WordPress your database information, and then WordPress takes care of rest of the things.
What is Database Hosting
Database hosting is the art and science of providing a managed server that is optimized for running a relational database. Almost any host can run a web server, mail server, file share, or other file-based application. … Databases also have particular backup requirements.
What is Database Host
Database host is the computer hosting your database on a MySQL server. Most of the time it is localhost and entering localhost in the host field would connect WordPress to your database.
What is Database Table
Databases have tables which are like sections or cabinets in your database system. Each table has columns and information is stored as rows. Each row has a field for each column in the table.
Example: an office database may have a table called employee_records. This table may have following columns:
- employee_id
- employee_name
- employee_joining_date
- employee_phone_no
WordPress will automatically create tables inside your database. At the time of writing this, a default installation of WordPress would create the following tables:
- wp_commentmeta
- wp_comments
- wp_links
- wp_options
- wp_postmeta
- wp_posts
- wp_terms
- wp_term_relationships
- wp_term_taxonomy
- wp_usermeta
- wp_users
Each of these tables would have different columns where data is stored. For example, wp_users table in WordPress has these columns:
- ID
- user_login
- user_pass
- user_nicename
- user_email
- user_url
- user_registered
- user_activation_key
- user_status
- display_name
What is Mysql
MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of “My”, the name of co-founder Michael Widenius’s daughter, and “SQL”, the abbreviation for Structured Query Language.
What is MySql query
SQL is abbreviation for Structured Query Language, it is a special programming language used to manage databases. An instruction issued by SQL to the database server to retrieve data is called a query. WordPress uses MySQL queries to get data and use it to generate web pages.
A typical MySQL query looks like this:
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 23;
WordPress stores and edits all your website data by storing and retrieving it from the database using SQL queries.
How to Manage WordPress Database
It is important to learn how you can do certain tasks on your WordPress database. This can help you troubleshoot some common WordPress issues, help you recover your website, and make your website more secure in general.
WordPress databases can be managed using phpMyAdmin, which is an open source web application with a nice easy graphical user interface to manage MySQL databases.