Structured Query Language (SQL)

2. Parts of a database

A database is made up of one or more tables.

Like this:

Each table should be given a relevant name. The table above is named 'Characters' because it contains well known cartoon or comic characters.

Each column in a table is called a field and contains information about a particular item of data. Each field should be given a relevant name, for instance the field called 'city' contains a city name. A field is always set to a certain data type such as

• numeric types: integer, float, real
• boolean
• character
• string
• Date and time
• binary
• Other e.g. blob

Each row in a table is called a record. Here is a single record from the table above

A record is made up of collection of fields related to a single item.

In short:

• Each piece of information is entered into a 'field'
• Related fields are organised into records
• Related records are placed into tables
• Related tables are collected into a database