To put it simply, a MySQL database is a collection of tables, each organized into rows and columns. That is called the logical representation of the database.
The physical representation is a folder. When you create a database in MySQL, the MySQL server actually creates an empty folder. You can try this by issuing the command
and seeing that an empty folder 'test' is created in the subfolder 'data' of the folder where you installed MySQL. All the tables you create inside the 'test' database will be stored inside the folder 'test'.
Consequences:
The physical representation is a folder. When you create a database in MySQL, the MySQL server actually creates an empty folder. You can try this by issuing the command
Code:
[FONT=Verdana]create database test[/FONT]Consequences:
- to backup a database on your computer you can simply copy the corresponding folder
- to completely erase a database on your computer you can simply delete the corresponding folder
