Connecting to a database

Overview

Mysql is a popular Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).
It runs on most systems so it can be run directly on your own machine, but it’s best to run it on a Docker instance running Linux.
In order to connect to a MySQL instance, you need to know a few things:
- Host - this is usually a url or ip address for a server
- Port - Port listening for a connection. Defaults to 3306
- Username - The MySQL user you are connecting with
- Password - The password for the user (This could be blank)

The easiest way to install a local MySQL instance on any machine is with a docker container.
The following line will start up an instance

docker run --name local-mysql -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=password\
p 3306:3306 -d mysql:tag

This will allow you to connect using the following

Host: localhost
Port: 3306
User: root
Password: password

Once you have connected, it is advised for security reasons that you create a new user.
The current user is the root user, which will always have all privledges and it is insecure to use it for general purposes.
Execute the SQL command below to create a new database.
- CREATE DATABASE database_name DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
Execute the SQL command below to make a new user and give them permissions to do anything to aforementioned database:
- GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database_name.* TO 'new_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';
- This will create a user with username new_user and password new_password.
  - Note if you forget the root password and the new_password you will not have any way of resetting this.