An Introduction To Databases

Seeing as this is an introduction, I am going to keep this post short and to the point (to help beginners who may be reading this blog).

What is a Database?

Let's start right from the very beginning. A database is a container for organised data that is easy to access, easy to store, easy to update and easy to manage. Please note that a database IS NOT a spreadsheet (and the reasons why this is will be discussed in later blog posts).

What is a Table?

A table simply contains data that is made up of columns and rows. Columns are vertical and rows are horizontal.

What is a Field? 

A field is another name for a column within a table. Tables can be made up with many fields with different data types. For example, a field that has an "int" datatype can only store an integer (or number) value between -2,147,483,648 through to 2,147,483,647 for a signed integer and from 0 to 4294967295 for an unsigned integer. No other characters will be allowed and an error would appear if an alternative input was entered.

What is a Record?

A record is another name for a row within a table.

What is DBMS?

A Database Management System (or a DBMS) is a software package that allows a user to create and maintain a database.

What is RDBMS?

A Relational Database Management System (or a RDBMS) is a software package that not only allows you to create and maintain tables of data, but also allows you to manage the relationships between tables.

So what is SQL? 

Structured Query Language (or SQL) is the standard language used to communicate with a database in order to SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE data. Further down the line, example code will be posted to demonstrate how these statements can be executed in order to manipulate result sets.