What is a Database?

A database is a collection of records of information [?] in a systematic way. Some common examples of databases are phone books and library [?]. A non-electronic database could consist of a set of [?] while an electronic database could be created using software programs such as Microsoft [?] and Filemaker Pro.

Each [?] in the database holds information about one particular person or thing. Every record has a number of [?] which contain data items. The same field on different records contain the same of data. Types of data ([?]) can include:- text, integers, numbers, dates, boolean (yes/no), currency, etc. Each record must have one field which can be used as a unique identifier. The value for this record is [?] and cannot be the same for any other record. It is known as the Unique Identifier or .

For example, the school library catalogue contains information about every [?] in the library. All the information about one book is a . Within each record there would be separate for the author, title, call number, etc. Each field would contain a particular data type.

All records about one thing are listed as [?] in a [?]. Each is a field. You might have a table called "books", and you might have another table called [?].