MySQL ()
is an
open-source relational database management system (RDBMS).
Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder
Michael Widenius
Ulf Michael Widenius (often called Monty; born 3 March 1962, in Helsinki, Finland) is the main author of the original version of the open source MySQL database, a founding member of the MySQL AB company and CTO of the MariaDB Corporation AB. ...
's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for
Structured Query Language. A
relational database organizes data into one or more data tables in which data may be related to each other; these relations help structure the data. SQL is a language programmers use to create, modify and extract data from the relational database, as well as control user access to the database. In addition to relational databases and SQL, an RDBMS like MySQL works with an
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
to implement a relational database in a computer's storage system, manages users, allows for network access and facilitates testing database integrity and creation of backups.
MySQL is
free and open-source software under the terms of the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
, and is also available under a variety of