Abstraction?

[mingmong]

I just read a very informative article about abstractions in PHP. But, guess what! The article never defined just exactly what an abstraction is!!! So I now know some cool stuff about abstractions but I do not know what they are! Now I don't want the typical definition by inference I so often see in the computer field; I mean I want an actual definition that someone with simply basic knowledge of database work can understand. Can I please get one?

[laserlight]

So I now know some cool stuff about abstractions but I do not know what they are!

Take at look at the definition of abstraction from FOLDOC.

Basically we use 'abstraction' to describe some form of generalisation into higher level concepts.

[mingmong]

Laserlight, thank you. Can you give me an example? I mean, is it something like a view in Oracle, where you have a set query and each time you run it the data gets updated?

Thank you

[hutchic]

Def (from dictionary.com):
Generalisation; ignoring or hiding details to capture some
kind of commonality between different instances. Examples are
abstract data types (the representation details are hidden),
abstract syntax (the details of the concrete syntax are
ignored), abstract interpretation (details are ignored to
analyse specific properties).

A relational database abstracts the user/programmer from the underlying information such as storage structure, file format, opperating system
A database abstraction layer abstracts the details of the underlying database system from the programmer: the most common example is the type of database is set in a configuration line and can be changed by that same line. ie result = mysql_query is not abstract while $result = $dbh->query($query);