Best way to store serverside data?

What is t开发者_高级运维he best way to store data on the server, that can be updated using PHP?

In my case I am storing a number. Should I use:

• MySQL table
• .TXT document

If you don't need to search, update and order data, you can use a .txt file.... but if you need to query data, i highly recommend a database (MySQL for example).

If you store just one number, you can do it using a .txt file.