Working with MySQL

MySQL is an open source RDBMS that has been around for over 20 years now. Originally developed and owned by the Swedish company MySQL AB, it is now owned by Oracle Corporation. The current stable version of MySQL is 5.7.

Some of the key strengths of MySQL can be outlined as follows:

• Cross-platform, runs on server
• Can be used for desktop and web applications
• Fast, reliable, and easy to use
• Good for small and large applications
• Uses standard SQL
• Supports query caching
• Supports Unicode
• ACID compliance when using InnoDB
• Transactions when using InnoDB

Installing MySQL

Assuming we are using the fresh Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) installation, the following steps outline how we can set up MySQL:

1. To install MySQL, we execute the following console commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server

2. The installation process triggers a console GUI interface that asks us to enter a root user password:

3. The provided password needs to be repeated for confirmation purposes:  

4. Once the installation...