Database - Relational database

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==Database - Relational database==
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Database refers to a file that is used to store information in a format
that is easily retrieved and manipulated.

The most common database files are made up of tables, fields and
records. These are referred to as a relational database.

Relational Database
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Let's look at the components of a relational database file:

A field is a single piece of data.

A Record is a collection of fields.

A Table is a collection of records.

A File is the database in its entirety, ie all tables, records and
fields.

A simple example of this type of database would be a bookshop's stock
system which used 1 table.
The table will include a record for each book, the record may be split
into five fields, title, author, genre, isbn and stock status.

With the data organised in this way it makes it easier to locate any
one piece of information, for instance you could search the author
fields of all records to find all books by your favourite author and at
the same time see which books were in stock.

To query a database you use a DBM (database management system), one
example of this would be the built-in DBM of Microsoft's Access
database system.
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