PHP and MySQL tag team

[hoangvu]

Good day everyone,

I learned that many web developers are using PHP as their language of choice. It's a simple program to learn, as they say. To those who are just starting to learn like me, there are plenty of references over the internet which are truly helpful. One thing that I also notice in these references is the frequent association of PHP to MySQL.

My question is this.
Is it a handicap for web programmers to learn PHP without learning MySQL?
Is there another Database tool available better partnered with PHP?

Thank you.