Databases are very powerful!

• anything you can do with a plain file containing a matrix of values you can do with a database
• databases can do it all and then some more
• you do not have to know it all to use a subset of what a database offers
• everything has been optimized in countless ways
• as the complexity of relationships within your data grows, a database becomes more advantageous
• as the amount of your data grows, a database becomes relatively more efficient vs. a plain file
• using "stored procedures" you can analyze your data from within the database for amazing performance gains
• databases enable advanced data-mining methods
• a slave server can give you local and synced access to a remote database
• think of databases as magic black-boxes which do your bidding better than you know how
• many more reasons too...

Want to learn more?

The best way is to use a database for your next project. After an initial learning curve, things should get really easy. See mysql.com for a great online reference.