Accessing the database

The database structure

By default, PrestaShop’s database tables start with the ps_ prefix. This can be customized during installation

Important

For security reasons We strongly recommend to customize your database prefix instead of using the default one. Changing it will help protect your shop against any attacks (some SQL injection for example) targeting the default table names

All table names are in lowercase, and words are separated with an underscore character (“_”):

  • ps_employee
  • ps_manufacturer
  • ps_product
  • ps_product_comment
  • ps_shop_url

When a table establishes the links between two entities, the names of both entities are mentioned in the table’s name. For instance, ps_category_product links products to their category.

A few details to note about tables:

  • Tables which contain translations must end with the _lang suffix. For instance, ps_product_lang contains all the translations for the ps_product table.
  • Tables which contain the records linking to a specific shop must end with the _shop suffix. For instance, ps_category_shop contains the position of each category depending on the store.

There is also a couple of standard practices for data rows within a table:

  • Use the id_lang field to store the language associated with a record.
  • Use the id_shop field to store the store associated with a record.