When you need to manipulate your database and table structures there are two ways to go about it. The first is using custom scripts we write to manipulate the database structure. The second is a nice simple user interface named PHPMyAdmin.

In most of our MySQL scripting lessons here, we structure our databases using script. Very clear examples of how to structure your database through script will be covered.

PHPMyAdmin... can it help me?
Beginners enjoy the workflow of using PHPMyAdmin. It has a great intuitive user interface made for the specific task of database management. Complete and wonderful. Best of all the software is free. PHPMyAdmin will teach a beginner the code to structure a databse if the user clicks to see the PHP and query that made the action take place. So in other words, anytime you do anything to your database, you can click "show PHP code" to see the scripting used to make that action occur. PHPMyAdmin is much more than just a database management tool, it is a teacher. The guys did not have to program in the feature of you being able to view the PHP code it uses to perform all of the various manipulations it can.

How do I get PHPMyAdmin? When you create a database on most web hosts they supply you with PHPMyAdmin by default for your database management needs. But if you host your own server, that is custom programmed with software that you must install, you can download PHPMyAdmin here to install for use with your databases.