Thanks for any help with this...I have a site with a list of businesses that i want visitors to be able to search them by city and state. I've been told to use a database, but I don't really know how they work, because I'm trying to teach myself. I would like for visitors to be able to put in New York, Ny and specify a distance range of 50 miles for example and have the return show businesses in my member list that are located within 50 miles of New York. If databases are the way to go with this, should I use mysql or something different??? Thanks for your help, it can be a confusing world to someone who is trying to teach themselves. By the way, I am using frontpage 2003 to create my site.

Your certainly need a database to develop such site.

PHP / MySQL platform is quite popular and there's lots of free scripts for it alternatively you can use ASP / MsSQL which tends to be more expensive.
The best way is to get a content management system (CMS).

CMS is a software or script the you install on your webserver and will give you a frontend area(what the visitors see) and a backend area which would be your administration area.

There are many CMS out there for both platforms, just google the terms 'cms' or 'content management system' to see if you can find one that suits your needs.

Or you could script the output in a huge if then else, if you would change your criteria. Instead of trying to get all dealers within x miles of NY, why not show all NY dealers or all Jersey dealers if they click on something in Jersey. If they live close to a state line, they'll know to check both states.