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You can customize input handling. With mysql, you enter raw SQL statements. With your own programs, you can provide input methods for the user that are more intuitive and easier to use. The program can eliminate the need for the user to know SQL—or even to be aware of the role of the database in the task being performed. Input collection can be something as rudimentary as a command-line style interface that prompts the user and reads a value or something as sophisticated as a screen-based entry form implemented using a screen management package, such as curses or S-Lang, an X window using Tcl/Tk, or a form in a Web page.
For most people, it's a lot easier to specify search parameters by filling in a form rather than by issuing a SELECT statement. For example, a real estate agent looking for houses in a certain price range, style, or location just wants to enter search parameters into a form and get back the qualifying offerings with a minimum of fuss. For entering new records or updating existing records, similar considerations apply; a keyboard operator in a data entry department should need to know only the values to be entered into records, not the SQL syntax for INSERT, REPLACE, or UPDATE.
An additional reason to interpose an input-collection layer between the end user and the MySQL server is that you can validate input provided by the user. For example, you can check dates to make sure they conform to the format that MySQL expects, or you can require certain fields to be filled in.
Some applications might not even involve a user, such as when input for MySQL is generated by another program. You might configure your Web server to write log entries to MySQL rather than to a file. A system monitoring program can be set up to run periodically and record status information to a database.
You can customize your output. mysql output is essentially unformatted; you have a choice of tab-delimited or tabular style. If you want nicer-looking output, you must format it yourself. This might range from something as simple as printing "Missing" rather than NULL to more complex report-generation requirements. Consider the following report:
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