Opening database connections in parallel

Question

If a MySQL database connection is already open from a script (say PHP ), is it advisable for another script (say python ) to access the same database table at the the same time? If not, what should be the alternative?

Answer 1

Database systems like MySQL are designed to accommodate this kind of multi-user access. They do this by employing locking mechanisms, most of which work in the background. The locking mechanisms prevent one user from trying to read a record while someone else is writing it, or two users from writing the same record at once.

See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/internal-locking.html