StudioWorks — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:23:39 +0000

MySql.. never used anything else

JeevesBond — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 12:19:21 +0000

Bah, *grumble* Microsoft *grumble*

dk01 — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:11:54 +0000

Sounds like MS SQL Server 2005 will be out soon. Should be interesting to see what they add/change since SQL Server 2000.

-dk

JeevesBond — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 11:52:38 +0000

Andy is right, SQL is in fact an ANSI/ISO Specification (SQL99) so databases - although their levels of conformance very and there are quirks - should all be able to parse and understand your SQL.

As said, there are quirks I'm afraid and you will occassioanlly find yourself getting infuriated as something that worked in Access doesn't work in MySQL (or vice-versa), in this case head to http://dev.mysql.com and search for the syntax; the documentation is quite good

andy206uk — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 10:48:30 +0000

Looks like it would work... I believe SQL language is pretty much standardised across the most database apps

bja888 — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 09:50:10 +0000

It would appear that the SQL strings I had to learn for access are also used in MySql example of one of them "SELECT volume, number, date, URL, manypages FROM dat ORDER BY date DESC". Is that a valid sting for Mysql ?
Thank you JeevesBond very informative.

JeevesBond — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 19:40:40 +0000

MySQL is a SQL server, simply: You send it SQL, it does stuff.

Access is like having a DB front-end and SQL server both running on your computer: Access is the front-end, the Jet Engine (arf arf - I love calling it that) is the SQL server. As you get deeper into the workings of Access you'll find that all Access does is send SQL to Jet and Jet does stuff, hence it's behaviour is different to many other applications - this often manifests itself as appearing to be less user-friendly (although the average user should never go near Access, they don't know enough about DB design/management).

When you get MySQL all you're getting is the backend, it is the 'SQL Server' (unless you download some of their management tools as well), there is a command-line interface included but that's about it. So when you get this you'll presumably be building a nice front-end in your chosen language (PHP, VB, C++ etc).

The differences between Access and MySQL are easily highlighted if you download the MyODBC connector, you can then hook Access up to MySQL. So instead of Access sending SQL to Jet and Jet doing stuff, Access sends SQL to MySQL and it does stuff instead. The advantage of this is that you can create a true client/server interface where the client runs on one machine and the server runs on another machine - something that is not possible using Access alone (it can do client/file server but that's a completely different matter).

The word: 'Stuff' is used in this context to describe any SQL operation, e.g. the client sends "SELECT * FROM `products`;" the server grabs all the records from the products database and throws the result back to the client. Note that all the hard work is done by the server instead of the client

bja888 — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 17:40:25 +0000

Well considering your advies and what I have been thinking about the past week I figure like this.
Access - use when I need to send a script (+ DB) to a client. Easiest to configure
Mysql - The my sites and buisness ventures

I will look into mysql very soon. But I'm not sure how diffrent it will be from access. I'm used to editing the DB on a table and you need a SQL server to run a mysql db?

JeevesBond — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:31:37 +0000

In terms of popularity MySQL wins I believe, also it appears to be the most widely supported, in addition there are a variety of useful - more importantly free - tools available to help you configure your DB (phpMyAdmin etc). What do you have available and what tools does your host provide to support your decision?

There are many things to take into account, and each solution fits different purposes. If you give us more information on the choice you have to make, we will be in a better position to help.

dk01 — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 19:38:49 +0000

For most things MySQL works just fine. Unless you are talking millions and millions of records you should be fine with MySQL. As for access, its cheap but slow if you have to do a large number of queries. Its good for small business applications but I would not recommend using it for any websites if you can avoid it. Security is also an issue here. Don't forget PostGre too

-dk