Odbc

I have created a database called 'friends' via mysql> in a console window having started from a DOS prompt - below is the code:


C:\WINDOWS\cd\
C:\>cd apache\mysql\bin
C:\apache\mysql\bin>mysqld --standalone
C:\apache\mysql\bin>mysqlshow

(little diagram of a table appears showing two database names - mysql and test)

C:\apache\mysql\bin>mysql.exe
Welcome to the Mysql monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your Mysql connection id is 4 to server version: 3.23.32_debug
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer
mysql> CREATE DATABASE friends;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)
mysql> use friends;
mysql> CREATE TABLE students (surname CHAR(30) DEFAULT'' NOT NULL, firstname CHAR(25) DEFAULT'' );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.17 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO students VALUES ('Lawrence', 'David'), ('Conrad', 'Joseph');
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.05 sec)
Records: 2 Duplicates: 0 Warnings 0
mysql> SELECT * FROM students;

(little diagram of my table + contained data)

2 rows in set (0.11 sec)
mysql> exit;
Bye

My questions are:
1.What type of datadase have I just created, is it an access database, a mysql database or what?
2.Presumably there must be some advantage in creating an ODBC for my friends database. Briefly, what do I gain by doing this?
Sorry for asking such low IQ type questions but I'm struggling to get my head round all these new concepts.
Thanks
David

1. You're using MySQL and therefore you've created a MySQL database. MySQL doesn't really have much to do with ODBC though there is a program called MyODBC which allows you to connect ODBC databases to MySQL (eg. MS Access).

2. Whether there's an advantage to creating an ODBC database depends on what you're trying to do. Most people around here are using MySQL so that they can create database-driven websites where the MySQL database is stored on the web server and they use a language like PHP or Perl to interact with it and produce HTML pages. If you just want a database to run on your own PC you would be better off with a standalone database like Access, FileMaker, whatever.

Incidentally, there's a program called phpMyAdmin which is very popular for managing MySQL databases without having to go to the trouble of typing in all those long SQL commands. You will need PHP and Apache webserver on your computer to use it, though. Of course this is to some degree cheating, so if you're learning SQL so that you can write web applications you'd be better off doing it the hard way until you know exactly what you're doing.

http://www.phpwizard.net/projects/phpMyAdmin/

Thanks for taking on my question - I know it can't be much fun answering questions like the one I posted - but I can assure that
it is really appreciated.
David