What is MySQL and how does it differ from SQL?

Question

Accepted Answer

SQL is the standard query language for relational databases. MySQL is a popular open-source database management system (DBMS) that implements SQL, originally built by MySQL AB, now owned by Oracle. SQL — the language; works on PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite too. MySQL — the database engine; storage, query optimizer, replication, transactions. MySQL dialect — mostly standard SQL with some extensions and quirks ( LIMIT , AUTO_INCREMENT , backticks for identifiers). Storage engines — InnoDB (default, transactional), MyISAM (legacy, no transactions). SQL = language, MySQL = software that uses SQL. Know that other RDBMS also use SQL (PostgreSQL, Oracle). MySQL's key features: open-source, InnoDB default engine, port 3306, widely used in web applications.