Introduction

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL, officially pronounced es-que-ell, is by far the most widely used language for communicating with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), SQL is the standard language for relational database management systems (DBMS). SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as insert data to a database, or select data from a database. SQL allows users to access data in relational database management systems, such as MS Access, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, MySql, etc.

To use SQL, first you need to create a database. Let's use MS Access. Make sure you have MS Access installed on your computer and you know how to configure it.

in Windows 95/98. you should go into the ODBC32 icon in your control panel, and add MS Access Drive on System DSN. Then create a database and a table. You must give a name to your database and to the table. Let's name the database "my_db.mdb", name the table "members" and the path to this database is:

  C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\my_db.mdb

Let's design a table something like this:

Note:

• The table and column names must start with a letter and can be followed by letters, numbers, or underscores.
• Do not use any SQL reserved keywords as a table name or column names (such as "select", "create", "insert", etc).