WampServer

I am trying to sort out a database to play with and get used to before I go ahead and create one for my site and to be honest I am completely lost and confused.

I understand that the values in Field are between '' but what do all the other options mean such as Type, Length/Values, Collation, Attributes etc etc? I have searched to try and sort it all out but the more I search the more confusing it gets.

What do they mean? How are they used? Why do I need to use them? Sorry if I am asking such simple things but I at least want to try and learn.

LOL yes it can be confusing

field = this is the name of your field

type = the type of data stored- dates , times etc int is numbers and varchar is variblbe charectare
int and varchar are used most



colation = its like encoding, from example if storing russian you would need to change this

attributes= usualy just leave this blank

null = set it to null of not null- this is if it is left blank.. null returns false in boolean mode
normally leave this on not null

extra = if u pick auto increment. wen u store a line in the table it will go to 1 and keep adding up line by line

OK, so for my site (www.ultimate-top-trumps.co.uk) where I want people to search the site for a specific pack I will need to list each and every pack I add, all 1600 of them?

OK I now know that I have a huge job in front of me. Will I need to add anything extra if I want to be able to search using year, country and producer, the same sort of thing as the Advanced Search on many websites?

Another dumb question, how do I run a test search on the database when finished?

do u use msn?

i could help you


1600 packs? what are they


ok i looked at the site . cards? cool

maybe there is an easy way to add them..



do u have all these things in an excel file?

you can import an excel file into phpmyadmin ?would this help you

I do have MSN Messenger yes. rogue.nigs1000atvirgin.net

I do have the packs listed on an Excel file as I do valuations as well so yes that would help hugely.

i added u.

make up an excel file

with all the details you want.


think of eveyey detail you might need to store. easy to do now. hard to do after.

searching is easy. you just write i script to look for works in a row of a column on a exact box in a row

i can help u with all of that