It's a relational database as opposed to a flat file data base.
i.e.:
With MySql you can have a table called customer.
This table only contains the pertinent info for that customer.
You wouldn't have your products that they bought in the same table because it wouldn't make sense nor would it be efficient.
So say you have a CUSTOMER table:
cust_key 1
first_name BOB
last_name SMITH
address 123 ANYSTREET
city DALLAS
state TX
cust_nbr XYZ123
And a table called PRODUCT:
prod_key 1
prod_description LazyBoy Chair
prod_cost 100.00
And then an ORDER table:
ord_key 1
cust_key 1
prod_key 1
Then you could write an sql statement like
"Select cust_nbr,
first_name,
last_name,
prod_description,
prod_cost
from customer, product, order
where
customer.cust_key=order.cust_key and product.prod_key=order.prod_key"
This is basic and I don't know if it would run exactly as written but I think this is what you are asking. The hard part is retrieving it correctly using PHP.
