18 Nov 09 Create a New MySQL Database with phpMyAdmin

There are a few good ways to create a MySQL database. One of the easiest (and most visual) methods is to use phpMyAdmin. If you’ve followed our tutorials since the beginning, then you already have phpMyAdmin installed and ready to use.

Like usual in our tutorials, the first step is to make sure your local server is running, so make sure WAMP Server is online. Click on the WAMP icon in your Windows taskbar and choose phpMyAdmin. This will open your Web browser and take you to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/.

The phpMyAdmin index page will load. It shows you a list of databases in the left column. It also gives you information about your MySQL server, your Web server, and phpMyAdmin itself.

Creating a new MySQL database with this tool is very easy. Near the middle of the screen, you’ll see the option to create a new database. Type in the database name “movies”. Your screen should look like this:

The next thing to do is click Create. And then… congrats! You just created your database. It will show in the left column as “movies (0)”. The zero represents the current number of tables, which is none for now.

You might be curious what the “collation” stuff is all about. In short, a collation is a set of rules for comparing characters in a character set. For now, just set it to what you see in the image above, which is utf8_general_ci. Utf8 is one of the most common to use. If you’d like to learn more about collation, please visit MySQL’s official article.

Tags: collation, database, mysql, phpmyadmin