Are you familiar with Excel spreadsheets, or HTML tables, where data can be organized into rows with multiple columns, each column neatly labeled? If not, take a peek at the following examples.

An Excel spreadsheet:

An HTML table:

Question	Answer
Why do birds fly South?	Because it's too far to walk.
What did the bee say to the flower?	Hello honey!
How do you know that cats are sensitive creatures?	They never cry over spilt milk!

MYSQL databases can have multiple tables, each of which function in the same manner as an excel spreadsheet or HTML table. From the command line, a MYSQL database table might look something like this:

The moral of this story is preparation by organization. Before creating a database, write down your plan of action. Decide how many tables that you want to begin with (more can be added at any time) and then determine how many columns each table should have (the limit is 4096 columns per table) by creating a column for each type of data that will be stored. (Additional columns can be added later if you miss something now.)

We will learn how to make the following table to store information about our pets.