Free Databases for Trail-and-error?

[swinginjohn]

Hi there everyone,

I am brand new to both PHP and programming for the web period. I was wondering if anybody knows a place that offers free databases (preferably MySQL) so that I can practice databasing?

Thanks a million, and look forward to growing in this PHP community.

John Lawrence
imagic Entertainment
www.imagicfx.com

[swinginjohn]

Hehehe...

should be "trial-and-error" not "trail-and-error"

[[deleted]]

If you're new you could start by installing MySQL on your own server/PC.
It's a very lightweight database but perfect for getting an idea how databases work. and it's free. www.mysql.com

Then later you can move to a 'real' database server and install postgres, but that requires more fiddling to get it running. that's also free.

[swinginjohn]

Would that work if my PHP server is remote and my database is local?

John Lawrence
imagic Entertainment
www.imagicfx.com

[[deleted]]

That should work, but I'd go for a local-server setup to do your testing.
If you can get your hands on a simple linux-server you can do PHP, Apache webserver and database server all on one machine and do all your testing and learning there before you start messing with the 'real-thing'

[Anon]

Try looking at http://www.alt-php-faq.org they have some hosting sites listed in the links section

• Sinbad

[knickerlas]

Hi
If you want a hassle free setup for home dev on Windows or Linux try a package from www.nusphere.com
It will install Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl all in one go.

Nick