Programming Thread

[gekko]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Can someone give me a definition of what exactly a "database" is?

Like is it located on my server space or on my computer, and what is it used for? I just don't understand *what* it is exactly.

A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval.

A database is a metheod of storing information, that can be accessed externally. Generally, everything is stored in tables, but if you get more advanced you'll find you can store images and all that crap in them to, for better or worse.

Anyway, take this forum as an example. The database will store the information in multiple columns, ie.

Thread ID = 1234
Post ID = 164917
User ID = 15
Post title = Programming Thread
Post icon = 5
post contents = Blah blah blah

Anyway, the information can all be searched and easily recalled.

So when this is posted, it puts the reply under thread 1234, it knows user 15 posted it, so it'll grab his information for the side bar, then it puts the title that you entered into the proper spot, as well as any icon you chose, and the contents of the post.

If you wanted to do this another way, you would have write a script that physically created and deleted text files to store the same information, which is a lot slower and (IMO) more complicated.

Yada, yada, yada...