Becoming Familiar with Databases in PhpMyAdmin

This tutorial assumes you’ve already logged in to PhpMyAdmin. Now let’s familiarize ourselves with databases and PhpMyAdmin.

From the home PhpMyAdmin screen, we have access directly to databases like lwtest_wpdb, listed here. A database consists of one or more tables, and it is in the tables that database information is recorded. 

From this PhpMyAdmin screen, we have access directly to the database demo1234_members, listed here. A database consists of one or more tables, and it is in the tables that database information is recorded. This particular database has two tables called details and information, and they are listed here. Click the database name just above them.

We can Browse a table to see the individual records.

We can see the Structure of a table. This shows what type of data the field can hold, and the gold key icon shows that the option_id field is the primary key of this table.

We can also Search through a table for specific information or ranges of data.

We can also Insert new rows (records) into a table.

We can Empty the contents of a table. This keeps the structure, but deletes all the data.

Or, we can Drop (delete) an entire table altogether. This completely removes that table from the database.

Then, clicking on the database name on the left-hand menu brings us back to the main structure tab.

The SQL tab lets us run a query on the database.

We can Search for a string or multiple words that appear in records within the tables that we select.

The Query tab can help us build a query and sort the results.

We can Export the database and save it to our local computer.

We can Import previously exported databases.

Then the Operations tab allows us to create a new table, rename the database, or even drop the entire database from here.

Clicking on this white paper icon in the upper left takes us to the Mysql Reference Manual.

The blue question mark icon takes us to PhpMyAdmin’s main documentation.

The home icon takes us back to the home page.

And the door icon logs us out of PhpMyAdmin!

Conclusion

From the PhpMyAdmin interface, we can see information about the tables contained in the database, as well as perform multiple actions within the tables and databases. We can Browse a table to see the individual records, view the Structure of the table, and perform Searches within a table for specific keywords. 

As seen above, we can Insert new rows (or fields) into a table, empty  (or delete) the contents of a table, or Delete (or drop) an entire table altogether. Alternatively, we can view the database Structure itself, open an SQL Query window for creating direct queries on the database to perform various types of searches. There is also a means to open an SQL Query window which provides an easy, step-by-step method to create queries.

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