Hey Roger,
php fries your brian no matter your age. I like to think of it as a 3-d sudoku for nutters! haha.
If you don't have DataAssist (I'm assuming that is an extension for database handling) then you must have set up your database yourself. Are you using phpmyAdmin or are you using the Mysql client? I take it you are able to retrieve existing data from the database without any problems?