Understanding SQL and Relational Databases

Abstract

At the heart of almost every large-scale application, whether it be a Web application or a corporate intranet, is the database. The modern database has moved on a long way from the flat-file address-card style of database storage, and you now have the ability to store terabytes of information about customers, products, contacts, and so on. It’s all very well storing all of this data in a central database, but simply storing data doesn’t give you much in return if you can’t find some way to organize, access, and work with this data. Structured Query Language (SQL) is a standardized language designed to access and manipulate data stored in relational databases and to work with the databases themselves.