Hi
I'm a programmer but new to database operations...
Can anyone tell me the differences between MySql and Sql - apart from price that is!
Are they interchangable as regards development? - I need to produce an asp interface to an sql database and wonder if I can get away with mysql for test purposes...
Thanks

the first thing you must (un)learn is the name of the microsoft product

microsoft has a product called sql server (actually, i think sybase does too, although they do not, of course, market it very heavily by that name; microsoft actually licensed it from sybase, but that's another story...)

sql always refers to the language -- structured query language (and may i point out that it's neither structured not just queries)

the differences between mysql and microsoft sql server (also called mssql) are too numerous to list

in a nutshell, mysql and sql server are both database systems, and both use a variant of standard sql, but that's pretty much all you can say about their similarities

interchangeable as regards development? yes, to the extent that they both use sql, so you have a large body of syntax which is common to both systems

it's the differences in syntax you have to watch out for, but once you know them, it's not that hard

for example, any date calculations you want to do, mysql is a lot closer to standard sql syntax than sql server, but that's because sql server was created before the date standards were completed

yes you can develop an asp application with mysql as your database, just be prepared to tweak the sql when you change over (and make whatever changes are necessary to the connection code)

Thanks Rudy - that's very useful! I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get the Microsoft SQL product.
Life's complicated eough without having to rework the code at integration test time!
Thanks for your help.

Did you look at Oracle? There is a personal edition for free and very good.