MySQL is a database.
The data in MySQL is stored in database objects called tables.
A table is a collections of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.
Databases are useful when storing information categorically. A company may have a database with the following tables: "Employees", "Products", "Customers" and "Orders".
A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.
Below is an example of a table called "Persons":
| LastName | FirstName | Address | City |
| Hansen | Ola | Timoteivn 10 | Sandnes |
| Svendson | Tove | Borgvn 23 | Sandnes |
| Pettersen | Kari | Storgt 20 | Stavanger |
The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).
The query above selects all the data in the "LastName" column from the "Persons" table, and will return a recordset like this:
| LastName |
| Hansen |
| Svendson |
| Pettersen |